


Trust me, this was a great idea

by WhatTheFridgeDude



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Dumbass boys in love, Enemies to Lovers, Gakuhuo is trying, Gakushuu just wants to be left alone, Karma is a shit, M/M, They will eventually fall in love I promise, This is gonna be a roller coaster, the high school principal is a BAMF for dealing with them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:13:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 37,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22150852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatTheFridgeDude/pseuds/WhatTheFridgeDude
Summary: “You two will be kiss and make up if it’s the last thing I do. You two will admit the attraction you hold for each other and stop all the property damage," said the principal.Karma began to choke on his water and Gakushuu began to sputter angrily. The hallway outside had gone suspiciously quiet.“I think, with all due respect sir, that there has been a bit of a mistake.” Gakushuu said when he could finally form coherent sentences.“Yes, yes, one big misunderstanding” Karma supported Gakushuu with, once he had regained control of his windpipe. Both looked a bit surprised at the unlikely ally they had found in each other in this mess, but didn’t question it aloud.“Well, even if you two don’t think of each other romantically, this idea should still be doable. I’m forcing you two on a date.”Karma silently sent a fuck you to whichever vengeful God had decided to rain torment down upon him. It took a few seconds, but Gakushuu began to have a rage-induced seizure in his seat.Or the school ships it, and forces them on dates. Gakuhou just wants some peace.
Relationships: Akabane Karma/Asano Gakushuu
Comments: 64
Kudos: 288





	1. The death of Gakushuu's sanity part 1

**Author's Note:**

> "Hey y'all this is my first work! I'm not a natural writer, so if its weird or too fast please let me know. There aren't enough works of this pairing, so I wanted to add to the few that do exist. Tbh this was just a long excuse to force the two of them to be nice to each other and go on dates. It's set half way through their first year of high school.
> 
> Due to this they are 16, and as the legal age of consent in Japan is 13, and 16 where I live, I will be referencing sexual stuff between the two. Sorry to anyone who may be upset about this!
> 
> The new principal is not canonically Gakushuu's god-father i just need more Asano Senior interactions ngl,,,
> 
> Anyhow enjoy!

The whole incident had begun with chocolate.

Now Gakushuu himself could not claim to be a massive fan of sweets, but what little enjoyment he had previously had of candy was extinguished as soon as he felt the offending chocolate bar leave what was going to be a _massive_ bruise on his upper arm, having been chucked un his direction at a very high speed. Gakushuu solemnly vowed to run whatever the company was into the ground when he got home, _by God they would regret ever making the atrocity that was white chocolate with raspberries_ -  
Being quite literally thrown from his musings of utter destruction of all chocolate, Gakushuu landed bodily on the edge of the basketball court where suddenly very distressed players scrambled out of his way. Karma let out one of his trademarks evil cackles and strolled very casually towards where he was laying, considering the broken nose and twisted ankle he was sporting (that had been a brilliant usage of Gakushuu’s previously unknown flexibility, the look on Karma’s face as he had dropped into the splits whilst sweeping his legs out from under him has been priceless). 

Gakushuu let Karma get in kicking range before pulling up onto the basket ball hoop and flicking up into what would’ve been a very impressive manoeuvre, and he marvelled on the pure hatred on Karma’s face as he attempted to block before feeling his collar constricting around his neck as an offending hand grabbed his shirt. Oh _come on_ , his day had just been getting better--

The principal’s ‘anti Gakushuu and Karma’ tool (Gakushuu outright refused to ever let that offending mix of their names ever leave his mouth. Bleugh,, _karashuu_ ) held him in his left hand and a very disgruntled looking Karma in the right. Gakushuu began to struggle out of the grip, but the man was over 2 and a half metres tall and weighed triple what he did, leaving the endeavour to be somewhat pointless. At Karma’s shitty laugh he abandoned his struggle to glare at the redhead that would have sent lesser men sobbing, but unfortunately all the devil incarnate did was cackle. Fortunately the blood from his nose got into his mouth and turned the laughs into a very satisfying string of coughing, which made Gakushuu’s abysmal day ever so slightly better. Gakushuu was contemplating sacrificing the state if his shirt at the price if escaping, but the grip hardened and he was forced to simply glare angrily at Satan instead.

“You guys should know better, for two very smart kids, you really aren’t that smart are you?”

Gakushuu sneered as Karma twisted in his grip whilst giving the poor man a very scary grin that even an Asano would be slightly off-put by.  
“You been working out recently Gerald? A new gym opened recently near your house hasn’t it? Your biceps aren’t feeling so, ah, cuttable” Karma aggressively stated. He and Karma had an unspoken pact (the only thing they ever seemed to have a common goal against) to try and unhinge the man, as the principle was seemingly unmovable, but unfortunately Gerald seemed to get less and less affected by the not-so-subtly-veiled-threats of harm to his welfare, and the alarming fact that both of the two knew where he lived was apparently missed by the man. Maybe Gakushuu should send his newly married sister a present—

“Thank you, I have been working on my arms recently!”

It was also very hard to threaten a complete meathead, but they made do. The principle must pay very well, even Gakushuu’s bribes of a higher pay had been ignored. Oh, wait, the man was just a Neanderthal and didn’t seem to value his life, Gakushuu seethed internally.  
The principal’s anti school destruction investment, more commonly known as Gerald, hauled them up to the principal’s office as the entire school body watched. Gakushuu glanced at the chocolate one last time and cashed in whatever luck he was owed for a sudden and unexpected lightning strike upon the school. At either Karma or the chocolate, he wasn’t picky.

It would’ve been embarrassing to be carried like a baby if it wasn’t a weekly occurrence, but at this point the only distressed onlookers were some of Gakushuu’s (many) fangirls, some of whom were in tears. He would have discouraged them at this point, but they were an excellent tool against Karma. The boy may have illegal weapons, but he had rabid fans. The outcome about which was more dangerous was still being determined. Accompanied by the wails and sobs of upset women, they made their way through the corridors before being unceremoniously dumped into two chairs in the office. Gerald got out handcuffs??? which were new, Gakushuu noted, probably due to him scaling the whole building whilst the principle was in the toilet to avoid a meeting with his father last time. Karma shot him a lewd grin, and made a comment about ‘not knowing Shuu-chan was into BDSM’ before his own handcuffs were put on, which halted the lunge at Gakushuu about smug retort of “Enjoy being held down, Akabane?”. As the principle entered, Karma stuck his tongue out at him, which instantly soured his mood, this literal child how dare he challenge him! before he put on his persuasion pants™ and prepared the most charming smile he could muster with a split lip.

The principal gave them a weary look, internally cursing Asano Senior for promoting him to this position. Having been exposed to the Asanos’ technique for many years, being Gakushuu’s “new” godfather after the other died due to, ahem, unfortunate circumstances after a failed kidnapping of the junior Asano, and being allured by the pay rise, he had taken the job of principle at the school. He had received many concerned phone calls from his Harvard friend about how is my son doing??? Is he still emotionally stunted??? Should I restart pressuring him about his grades??? (which under no circumstances should be repeated to Gakushuu) from the start of the year, which had only increased in number after his son and Akabane had discovered that they very much enjoyed being physical with each other, (the hormones were practically radiating off of them, why they couldn’t just fuck it out he didn’t know- is it professional to diagnose your god-son with ‘needs a good dicking???’. He wasn’t sure.) and the distressed father who apparently couldn’t ask his son directly about his life was getting more and more vocal about how his distress would take form, the latest being arson should his son not be put on the ‘straight-and-narrow’. Well, unfortunately Gakuhou…

  
Not showing the pained face he desperately wanted to show, he addressed his god-son, who after a few months of these tussles had revealed himself as the most likely to tell the truth, which was saying something, asking “Well, how did this one happen then?”  
Any remaining smugness on Gakushuu’s face vanished, and after facing the internal trauma from his day for a few seconds, he gave a tight smile and responded with: “Well, you see, chairman-sir, a girl gave me chocolate for helping to tutor her, and Akabane’s fragile ego,” he spat out, “couldn’t handle being ignored for more than two seconds, so he took it from my hands. Apparently ‘because you don’t like sweets’ is an excuse now for stealing other’s property, so I rightfully fought back and some things may have ended up being thrown.”  
“Well, you weren’t going to eat it, so why let it go to waste? He also said I would ‘never find a girlfriend to give me chocolate because my of my psychopathic nature’ which I felt was a fitting enough offence to steal his chocolate for.” Karma retorted.

Gakushuu made a face that very clearly said ‘you’re delusional if you think it’s a lie’ which Karma combatted with a look that also clearly said ‘well you’re one to talk’. The principal thought it would be a fitting time to interject with his plan for the two of them before the handcuffs’ durability would be put to the test. He grinned at them and poured them both a glass of water. He wanted them hydrated for this news. Karma drank greedily and refilled his, ignoring Gakushuu’s look of disgust.  
“If you two can’t be friends or even more then you are forcing my hand. You two are scaring other students and putting off potential investors,” said the principal. This wasn’t strictly true, most of the student body had just accepted the two irritating homosexuals after the second term had started, and were now excited for the drama it provided. Apparently two boys “wrestling” in the courtyard qualified as entertainment.

  
“You two will be kiss and make up if it’s the last thing I do. You two will admit the attraction you hold for each other and stop all the property damage. Gakushuu-kun, the hefty donation that was quite obviously not from your father covering the damages is starting to run thin.”  
Karma began to choke on his water and Gakushuu began to sputter angrily. The hallway outside had gone suspiciously quiet.   
“I think, with all due respect sir, that there has been a bit of a mistake.” Gakushuu said when he could finally form coherent sentences.  
“Yes, yes, one big misunderstanding” Karma supported Gakushuu with, once he had regained control of his windpipe. Both looked a bit surprised at the unlikely ally they had found in each other in this mess, but didn’t question it aloud. Gerald gave a long-suffering sigh, so the principal decided that his notion wasn’t too far-fetched.  
“Well, even if you two don’t think of each other romantically, this idea should still be doable. I’m forcing you two on a date.”  
Karma silently sent a fuck you to whichever vengeful God had decided to rain torment down upon him. It took a few seconds, but Gakushuu began to have a rage-induced seizure in his seat whilst the principle engaged in a rather intimidating staring match with Karma. But having had much more scary ones with an Asano that was not currently present, it was Karma that was forced to back down and with a characteristically feral smile said, “well, as much as Shuu-chan would love to go on a date with me, I’m going to have to respectfully decline”. This restarted Gakushuu’s fit of rage, and would soon cause Karma’s angry fit when the principal shot down the false sense of security that the delinquent had gained.

  
“Ah that’s a shame, I would hate for the two of you to slip in your academic rankings. You see, these “liaisons” now qualify for 50% for your grade, should you refuse, any score you gain above 50% will be null,” he replied with a placating smile. Karma once more admirably seized control of his windpipe definitely not letting a chocked sound come out, before narrowing his eyes and accusing what Gakushuu surely also had on his mind- “You can’t do that!”  
“I think you’ll find I very well can, Akabane-kun, as the principal of this school. Its being put down as a ‘behavioural amendment’ to the system.”  
He watched with glee as the news sunk in to the teens that there was no getting out of this. He might finally go a week without having to replace school property!  
Gakushuu seemed to be the first to accept defeat, and with a strained voice, asked how long these *cough* “meetings” would go on for.  
“Until midterms, and if deem myself satisfied that you two have solved your marital disputes then the coordinated dates will end there, and yes, I understand that you claim that you ‘don’t feel that way about each other’ but you will persevere anyway. The first one will commence on Monday. I’ll leave it up to you two to decide where you go, with Gakushuu-kun deciding this time and Karma the next, so on so forth.”

He watched as the cogs turned in the boys’ minds, and before either of them could scheme too hard, he added in: “now, depending on how civil the dates are and how romantic the two of you are, you can gain up to 3 extra points on every exam you take. The teachers will be alerted of this change too.”  
Now he had them. They both perked up instantly at that memo, and the principal hoped that they were both emotionally stunted enough that they would fool themselves into falling for each other. He knew that they could potentially do it, they must have been so dense to not figure out how compatible they were before this point. Alarm bells rang in his head when he realised that he was putting the two most dangerous, manipulative 16 year olds into close quarters unsupervised and quickly added, “You will also be supervised by Gerald and a different teacher on rotation each date. They will decide how many points go to who. Th person deciding will also run the date plans by me every Friday. Any questions?”

Gakushuu decided to get off to an early start with tormenting his date by phrasing his questions in Portuguese. He had recently discovered that Karma didn’t understand as many languages as him, and was exploiting it to the highest degree. Karma had started to learn them to spite him back, but due to his slightly traumatic childhood Gakushuu had many languages stocked up in his arsenal.

“ _But god-father, why? You understand that we hate each other. What good will it do?_ ” Gakushuu attempted at a last-ditch attempt at avoidance, and simultaneously pissing Karma off, whose galre was lost on Gakushuu. Two birds one stone. He batted his eyelashes and looked as innocent as possible to try and guilt trip his dearest god-father. No dice.

“ _My dearest god-son, I just hate to see you so unhappy. My only goal in this is to try and help you find a healthy relationship with someone of your calibre. I know how self-sacrificial you are, and would have never asked for this yourself, so this is the least I can do_ ,” the principal replied with equally as innocent. Note to self, thought Gakushuu, don’t try to out-manipulate any close friend of his father. They had survived that long for a reason.

“Well, I’m not sure Shuuey can figure out an acceptable date plan, its been so long since he’s been on one that maybe it’s better that I go first.” Karma forcibly and not so subtly brought the conversation back to English in an attempt to recover his lost pride.

“No, Gakushuu will coordinate this one, and you the next. Any money spent on these dates will be covered by the two of you, I understand that your families are of equal financial standing and should be able to pay. I am not free this Friday, so I trust that you are okay to plan this date, just make sure to inform Gerald in advance,” he said, addressing Gakushuu. “The two of you are dismissed. Class starts in 5 minutes. I hope you have an excellent date.”

* * *

As the two boys left the room, not bothering to continue their fight as Gerald accompanied them down the hallway to class, the principle had a moment to internally sigh and feel pleased. He had done a good thing today. His one job now was to avoid thinking about any unfavourable outcome that may follow. That was for the future. He just really hoped his god-son would be normal for once, and plan a normal date, with his normal future boyfriend, and possibly have normal sex afterwards.   
That was all he could hope for. Nothing could go wrong, right?


	2. The death of Karma's sanity part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 3-E have a facetime about the date, littered with some Karmangst but some Karmalove too <3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No Gakushuu this time! Chapter 3 will still be from Karma's perspective, but I'm thinking of making chapter 4 from Gakushuu's (and Gakuhou ;) ) 
> 
> Since I love Gakushuu Asano with my whole heart I have still given him some love, and Takebayashi's crush on Asano is fucking canon you guys can't tell me otherwise.
> 
> Please tell me any ideas or hopes you have in the comments! I'm curious to see where you think this is going!

Karma was nervous.

Well, nervous was a strong word. Anxious was better. Nervous implied that he cared about the outcome of the "date" (which he most certainly didn't). But it wasn't like he had been in a relationship before, let alone a date, whereas his rival had been known to take people on dates and leave them so infatuated they were still in love with him years after they had ended (it was scary, either these girls were possessed or Asano had some secret bewitching powers that he was unaware of, in which case he had a right to be anxious). It wasn't like he hadn't tried, but people would much rather have casual sex with the 'bad boy' than date one, and the ones that were interested were never interesting to him. Being gay also didn't help, but that was a problem for the future. Or, well, now, considering he was about to go on a date with the most sort after boy in the school.   
Since the meeting, the news had spread like wildfire. He didn't know who had told, it definitely wasn't him, and Gakushuu wouldn't hurt his reputation like that, and Gerald was only hired to appear when they fought, which hadn't happened since the event. They hadn't even spoken to each other in the remaining two days of school, avoiding each other like the plague and only adding to speculation.

There were three current rumours that were spreading- one, they had been in love the whole time and just had a weird way of expressing it, which Karma thought was very far-fetched, seeing as he had once broken Asano's hand for his handwriting being too neat (apparently the bastard was ambidextrous too, it hadn't even done anything). The second was that they were both in love but hadn't have the guts to confess to each other, and this was the teachers finally pushing them together, which Karma could confirm was also false, at least for him. The thought of that bitch boy having a crush on him both eternally amused and disgusted him. The third one, which unfortunately was the most unpopular, was the truth, that they had been forced to do this against their wills. People seemed to not like this idea, the only ones who supported it were Asano's rabid fangirls and the homophobes, but even they were gradually being swayed by the drama of it all. He hadn't confirmed or denied anything, and as far as he knew neither had the other member of the date.

However, he had been pulled aside in the corridor Friday lunchtime by Asano himself, which hadn't been smart as it only sparked more rumours. He had told him to meet him at his house at around 7pm, semi-formal clothes. He didn't bother to tell him where he lived, they both knew that Karma knew that already, and with that strode out into a hallway of kids filming. Filming?! People seemed to absolutely adore this shit, which scared him to his core. The entertainment wasn't lost on him, but it was just so absurd- two mortal enemies going on a date? Multiple dates??? The two most dangerous and smartest people in the school both scheming to one up the other by romancing just seemed too far, even for him. But it didn't mean he was going to lose. Not in a million years. Those 3 points mattered, he wasn't stupid, and neither was Gakushuu. He was definitely going to make a joke about Gakushuu needing those 3 points. Once second-place always second-place, as he always said. He hadn't thought of a plan yet, but it was only Saturday and he still had lots of time.

* * *

Okay, he was running out of time.

Saturday was mostly spent brooding about how much wasabi he was going to send the principal and which of his garden flamingos he was going to set on fire (maybe that should be where he takes Asano on a date, he was sure they would both enjoy it equally). He had found that the principal had a soft spot for dogs, he was thinking of developing a drug similar to rabies to give to the dog so he could send it to the principal. He was sure he could do it. Now that could be a great date idea. It wouldn’t get him many marks for romance, but points for originality right? But his date was tomorrow, and as far as he knew he didn’t own anything smarter than black jeans. Frantically getting his phone out, he face-timed the 3E group chat. He was instantly assaulted with a full screen image of a very close up Nakamura, who cackled at his panicked face. 

“If you’re going on a date with the master of manipulation himself, you’re going to need to hide your emotions better Karma,” she laughed. Wait, hang on- 

“GET FUCKING REKT YUMA I KNEW HE WOULD CRACK!” Maehara was so loud, it was too late for this, why did he have to join the call second. Wait, hang on again--  
Isogai seemed to share his feelings about the noise and told him to shut up from his own now present corner of the screen, and scolded Maehara for the noise. 

“Don’t be so loud Hiroto, can’t you see Karma-kun is having an existential crisis?” Isogai gave him an apologetic look, but the tone was humorous and if Isogai is mocking him then he really is fucked- Wait, first names? HANG ON-

“Hey Karma, what’s up?” Nagisa joined the call and greeted Karma. 

“Thank God, I really need advice-“ 

“Is Karma having boy trouble?” joined Sugino, interrupting Karma fucking again oh my god-

“Yup” said Fuwa who hadn’t even been on the call till literally one second ago how did she know--

  
Isogai (once an ikeman always an ikeman) saw his distressed face and kindly interrupted their loud chatter about Karma, who was present and could hear what they were saying thank you very much. 

“Guys, pipe down, lets let Karma-kun speak!” he said and for a split second Karma was taken over by his ikeman powers before he shook it off. Damn, that guy could beat even Asano in a seduction off. 

“Okay, number 1- how do you guys know about the date already??” asked Karma. 

The call went quiet. They all looked rather concerned, and simultaneously everyone’s eyes swivelled to Nagisa, who sighed and looked at Karma through the screen. That was the face Nagisa made when Karma had done something dumb. Oh no. He hadn't fucked up already had he?

“Have you not been on the internet over the past few days? You and Gakushuu-kun have blown up.”

Shit. 

Karma knew he and Asano had an internet following, with several Instagram pages dedicated to them and some blogs, but it was always showcasing their violent behaviour rather than their ‘budding romance’. He knew Asano has been taking the videos down steadily, and was determined not to be alarmed at how adept he seemed to be at hacking, the fucking nerd. 

“Does the internet know that we’ve been forced on this date? Or has that memo been missed too?” That seemed to shock his class. 

“Wait what-“ 

“Forced??”

“You two weren’t dating already?”

Everyone except Nagisa and Isogai were speaking at once. Nagisa was laughing (the fucker) and Isogai looked simultaneously amused and disappointed.

“No? We hate each other’s guts, I don’t know why everyone thinks that we are dating.” 

Karma shuddered at even the notion, the idea of him and Asano on a date was so absurd, why were they even going this again??? His former classmates began to laugh. All of them. Even Isogai. Frankly, it would’ve been insulting had he not been laughing hysterically on the inside for three continuous days.

Maehara regained composure first, and sighed with a fond smile. 

“You’re an _idiot_ Karma, can’t you see that you two--” before Nakamura shushed him loudly, still in tears. 

“Don’t fucking tell him oh my god, this is too good! Let them figure it out on their own!” she said. 

“So what’s going on?” Itona said, joining the call. They all looked at him expectantly, so he told his side of the story. He was slightly offended again when they all restarted laughing , so much so that Fuwa fell off her chair. 

“This is fucking gold” gasped Maehara, as he banged his fist on the table. 

“You called us because you don’t know what semi-formal means? Oh my sweet child!” said Hara, who had joined halfway through the call with Okuda and Kataoka, who were giggling a bit. Why were his friends like this...

“I don’t own any formal clothes! Can you guys come shopping with me?” asked Karma, “I don’t instead to let this guy win yknow.”   
And BAM suddenly they were all action. _This_ is why he loved his friends. They started formulating a plan, and anytime he tried to butt in he would be shushed (very condescendingly might he add) before being told to “leave this to the grownups”. The get Karma Romance Ready™ plan was put into place, but couldn’t be fully finalised till they had the final piece. 

“Where the fuck is Takebayashi when you need him? Isn’t he the Asano expert?” said Nakamura. 

“Oh! He’s at my school. I think he boards too, I’ll see if I can find him!” piped up Okuda, “But you should know he’s not taken the news, erm, very well. Please be kind, I think he’s having a bit of a breakdown.” Her screen began to move as she left her dorm in search of him. 

“So he finally admitted his crush- Karma might have competition!” Maehara smirked. 

“I don’t want him, he can have him for all I care!” scoffed Karma. 

“You have to admit he’s super-hot, attractive at the very least!” said Fuwa. 

“I’m straight as a ruler and I would bang him!” Sugino ~~un~~ helpfully piped up. 

“I would pay good money to take your place, Karma. I would have some fun with him,” Nakamura said, wiggling her eyebrows. Everyone groaned simultaneously, pitying Asano if Nakamura ever did decide to go after him. Suddenly a wailing could be heard and everyone went quiet, before bursting into laughter when they saw a distraught Takebayashi being comforted by Okuda. 

“KARMA-KUN, YOU HAVE TO TREAT HIM WELL!!” he sobbed into Okuda’s phone, who was massaging his shoulders sympathetically. 

“TAKE HIM ON CUTE DATES, PAY FOR HIS MEAL, ohwhycan’titbeme,,,”. He then promptly buried his head in the pillow and bawled. 

“Kotaro-kun, you know I don’t like him right?” Karma laughed. Takebayashi sat up dead straight, very fast, like he’d been possessed.

“Wha-“ He made intense eye contact with Karma through the phone, which would have unnerved him had snot not been running down his face.

“Are you straight?? You’re not!”

This Karma was insulted at. ASANO IS NOT THAT ATTRACTIVE WHAT THE FUCK.

He had never properly come out to his class, he was going to do it if Okuda ever got the guts to confess (he wasn’t blind, okay) but she never did and he never felt the need. Was he really that obvious, god he was losing his touch.   
“He’s not that attractive!!! I don’t see why you guys like him so much!” Karma sputtered.

They all judged him, Takebayashi especially.

“Everyone in middle school, regardless of orientation or gender had a crush on Gakushuu Asano at some point. We’ve all admitted it yknow” said Sugino. 

“What? All of you??” Karma said incredulously. “Seriously?”

“You skipped school that day, but we played truth or dare,” confirmed Okuda.

He looked at them all. “Nagisa? Isogai??”

Both had the decency to look sheepish.

“When??”

“I liked him back in second year. He helped me with my maths homework once,” admitted Nagisa, smiling a bit. “He was still relatively nice back then.”

That was a shock to Karma.

“Isogai?” He said, looking at his section on the screen.

Isogai was fully coloured, and Kataoka laughed. Maehara looked far too interested (something was going on there he fucking knew it-)

“Well, we got to know him a bit more during the class representative job,” Isogai mumbled.

“Gakushuu was wearing glasses the first time we visited, I can admit he looked very dashing” Kataoka added, “Yuma was blushing too much and I definitely saw him look at Asano’s ass when he bent over.”

Isogai had his head in his hands, and everyone else was cooing (apart from Maehara, who had gone suspiciously quiet, Karma noted…) 

Kayano joined at that moment.

“Ass? Is this Asano? Yeah he has a nice ass, make sure to grab it a bit Karma” she winked with, sending everyone into peals of laughter again, and Karma spluttering.

“Look, I may be gay, but that doesn’t mean I’m attracted to him. Never have never will be.” Karma said his with a sense of finality, and he saw Okuda freeze up before relaxing.

“Well, you still have to go on the date anyway,” said Isogai, trying to regain his lost dignity. “We will come round to your house on Monday and help you get dressed!”

Fuwa and Nakamura began to talk excitedly about how they were going to film the date, which unnerved him, but he did feel relieved. Takebayashi still looked uneasy, but seemed to be placated by Okuda’s retelling of the story. Maehara was going to bring over a suit that would suit (hah) Karma, as they were the same size, and Kayano was going to take time off of her film to bring makeup. He bid them goodnight and went to bed feeling like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He knew his friends would have his back.


	3. The Death Of Karma's Sanity Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two very manipulative boys try to out-manipulate each other and end up second-guessing themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that I've been delaying the date! This ended up being longer than expected, so I wanted to split it in two. I'll try and update regularly, but like, depression.
> 
> Karma may be a little OOC in this, I'm so sorry, I couldn't quite get him right. Gosh writing is hard.
> 
> Featuring gwendee's ocs! They will feature more in the future.

Monday came and Karma had _never been so ready._

He waltzed into school feeling powerful, and sent a very chaotic grin towards Asano who looked perfectly unhinged by it. The classroom went silent and people looked over with a curious air as Karma s t r o l l e d up to Asano, who to his benefit had collected himself and simply raised an eyebrow. He waited till he was right by him, before putting his hands behind his head Naruto style and clicked his back. Asano’s eyebrow twitched and Karma knew that he had this in the bag. 

  
You see, Karma had come up with a game plan. He knew that should it come simply down to romance, he was the underdog. He didn’t know how Asano worked when it came to actually trying to seduce people- he has seen him casually manipulating girls for fun but never for real. All he had heard were rumours, and although he knew he would never be fooled, he wasn’t so sure about Gerald and whatever teacher didn’t have enough of a life to go along on a high schoolers’ date. But what he did know was how to get under Asano’s skin. Karma was gonna make this kid break, and when Gakushuu self-destructs through pure rage and irritation then it’s his own fault that he’s lost. And until then, Karma was gonna flirt the fuck out of that nerd. The three points were just a bonus for the fun he was going to have driving the boy out of his mind.

  
He smirked at Asano, who simply smiled politely, and with only a slightly strained voice, asked,

  
“Anything I can help you with Akabane-kun?”.

Karma’s smirk became just that little wider, and he leaned close enough that he knew Asano would be uncomfortable.

  
“Just wanted to remind you that there is still time to quit, you might still be able to come first when I get those 3 points,” he made sure to very obnoxiously fake-think for a few seconds, letting Asano twitch with annoyance, before sticking the final knife in, “but, with your track record, it’s unlikely isn’t it, Second Place-kun!”

He watched with a lot of satisfaction as Asano’s eyes narrowed, and the collective “ooh” from the class was quickly glared down by him.

But turning back to Karma with a vicious look in his eyes and a violent smile, and with a disapproving tone in his voice, completely uno-reversed Karma.

  
“Now Karma-chan, that isn’t a very kind way to speak to your date is it? Are you hungry? I’ve brought your favourite snack for you!” he said with a smile, and he handed him a chocolate bar, and Karma was very confused at the change of name before Satan decided to smite him down for his cocky attitude. 

  
“Gakushuu-kun! You’re so sweet! I can see that supervising this date is going to be easier than I thought!” came a voice from the doorway and fuck fuck fuck Karma was fucked.

  
“The principal was very scared, but with how kind you’re being to Karma-kun I see that its going to be no trouble at all! But Gakushuu-kun is right Karma-kun, that’s no way to speak to your date! I will have to think about these points things in class too you know,” continued Saski-sensei, Gakushuu Asano’s number one fucking fan. Not breaking eye contact with him, Asano replied back and Karma was going to throttle him slowly and painfully-

  
“Its okay Saski-sensei, he just gets like this when he’s hungry. He’ll be okay once he’s eaten,” and with a very condescending smile patted Karma on the head and went to sit in his seat. Karma’s cheeks were on fire and the class starts cooing, and to make it worse Saski-sensei bought it. _She bought it._

  
Embarrased, enraged and already behind, Karma angrily sat down at his seat as class started. As attendance was being called, Karma looked down at the piece of confectionary in his hand and seethed. As if to rub salt into the wound, not only was the chocolate mockingly the same brand that started all of this, but its dark chocolate.

Karma hates dark chocolate.

  
Well, it seems Asano-kun has clearly put a lot of thought into this. If this is how they’re going to play it, then so be it. School was now part of the battleground too apparently. He was prepared too. He had his own tricks too.

  
Scratch everything that he had said. Karma was terrified. For all The Assassin training that he had had, he had not been prepared to be assaulted 4 times in one day by the same girl. He had bruises where he had been shoved against a wall fro god's sake. He had never even met her before!! But no, apparently Asano-kun was hers, he couldn’t take him from her, yadda yadda yadda. Karma didn’t even want him! She could very well have him if she wanted to!!! 

Asano being a smug bastard, was very pleased at the sudden possessiveness of his fans, and became very happy to conveniently disappear whenever Karma was being hounded by women. It would’ve been flattering had Karma not been as straight as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It had, however, attracted more attention from the males of then school too. They seemed very happy with Karma, now that all the eligible females were back on the market now Gakushuu was “taken”. One boy had clapped him on the back, and with a heavy wink at Gakushuu said “Bet you this one’s hung, he’ll show you a good time!” before high-fiving Karma and walking away like he’d asked Karma where to find classroom b. Again, it would’ve been very flattering had it not insinuated that he and Gakushuu were now an item serious enough to fuck, despite having only been publicly “together” for 6 days. Which Karma did not like. Not one bit. He liked it so little that he let Asano off without a comment about him ‘being underneath him physically and mentally’ which Karma did think was a bit of a waste really seeing as Asano had ruined his big scary delinquent role- 

  
Two girls had also come up to him and asked what it was like bottoming to Asano in class, who hadn’t refrained from making a comment. Karma absolutely loathed him.

* * *

  
He sat with Rukiyo and Kabaya at lunch. Sat is a bit of a push, more like lay angrily in Rukiyo’s lap as she patted his hair and murmured in agreement as he ranted to her. Kabaya sighs on the side and forcibly shoos away several incensed teenage girls. He tallies how many come and promises Kabaya to buy him chocolate for each one he successfully gets to go away. Its at 6 now. 

  
Once Karma had gone through the five stages of grief in Rukiyo’s lap he finally sat up and decided to get his life on track. Where had all his earlier confidence gone? He was not going to let this get to him. School was now a certified battlefield and it may be Asano’s home territory, but what he didn’t know is that Karma had the amazing ability to actually play along when he needed to. Doing this meant allowed him to beat Asano at his own game, but sacrificing his delinquent role once and for all. Or not, he realised with a stroke of extreme genius.

  
“You done wallowing then?” asked Rukiyo, who was fully expecting Karma to run off now that he had reached the fifth stage, and as gossip-starved as she was, she knew that she would get double the information tomorrow after the date anyway oh wait there he goes good luck Karma! Romance him!! Kabaya on the other hand didn’t look too happy, with scratch marks down his face and makeup smudges on his shirt looking like he had fended off a crazy ex-girlfriend. He lets go of the rabid second-year he had been holding and they watched as she pelted after Karma at a very fast speed, oh god Karma had better speed up---

* * *

  
Karma was quite happy when school ended, to go home and await his friends. He had spent fifth period bullying the science teacher into letting him create a fast-acting posion to slip into Asano’s drink. She didn’t bite, but did let him blow things up for 30 mins to let off some steam.

  
Apparently his old class were sending the elite Karma squad™, which consisted of Nagisa, Kayano, Maehara and Isogai. As much as he liked his old class, he was glad that it was only a small group, because he thought he would’ve gotten overwhelmed otherwise. He wasn’t proud of his house, how big it was yet how completely unlived in it was. His parents hadn’t even been home to find out that he now had a fake boyfriend. It stung more than it should have after all these years. 

He fiddled with his ds as he waited for the bell to ring, and was just contemplating sending Asano an annoying message when the doorbell went. He lept to his feet and very happily opened the door, and for a second belt his soul die a little bit more before slamming the door closed again.

Oh why God, he hadn’t been that bad had he???

“Hey! Is that any way to speak to your old teacher?? I’ve come here especially to help you romance him,“ came the annoyingly chipper sounding Bitch-sensei from the other side of the door.

Nope. Nuh-uh, not doing this.

Unfortunately he had a class of assassins for friends, and it was only when he heard the lock being picked did he open the door. 

“What the fuck. Who invited her?”

Bitch-sensei squawked and Kayano swept in, squeezing past Karma into the house. Nagisa looked guilty, but not guilty enough to stay on the threshold as he followed Kayano in. Karma sighed and moved aside for the others, Bitch-sensei ruffling his hair as she walked by. As annoyed as Karma was, it was good to see that she was safe. God he was getting soft him his old age.

  
They all set up camp in the kitchen, Maehara rifling through his cupboards for snacks no you idiot those aren’t for you-

  
As everyone got settled, they looked at Karma excitedly. He explained to them what had happened at school and how the issue was now personal, as despite the fact that he didn’t give one shit what people felt about him, Asano had turned his persona against him- how can he be the scary delinquent if he’s being fed chocolate and being patted on the head? And he explained his new plan of taking the bait from Asano but turning the dial up a thousand notches. He explained that as stubborn as Asano was, his reputation often kept him from making a public spectacle of himself. So, Karma was going to be so publically gooey and flirty that he would have no choice but to step down or give up his perfect student persona. They looked confused at this, but Karma only had to say one sentence to send them into peals of amused laughter. Isogai did look concerned though.

“Violent, destructive shows of affection might not be good for the school Karma,” he said, “yes it will win you points, but surely you’ll just be expelled too?” 

“Now that is where you are wrong my dear Isogai, you see Asano Sr has a fund especially dedicated to fixing any Karma/Asano related incidents, and the principal at the start of the year got bullied into signing a legal waver that he couldn’t expel me or Asano due to the destruction of school property, again thanks to Asano Sr. As long as I don’t hurt another student I’m home free.”

  
Bitch-sensei declared her immediate approval, but Karma was forced by Nagisa and Isogai to only implement this scheme should the date not go in his favour. He agreed, but he was also childish enough to cross his fingers behind his back ha take that.

He was quickly hoarded into his room by the group. His clothes were flung everywhere as his frinds scoured his closet for something presentable to go with what Maehara had brought for him. It was a tough job.

"Now, its semi-formal, but it wouldn’t Karma-kun if he wasn’t at least slightly informally dressed,” said Maehara, pulling out a pair of black skinny jeans with rips in them that hadn’t been put there for fashion. Kayano was getting her hair equipment out, but looked critically at the jeans and turned to Karma.

“Anything without rips?” she asked.

  
“Second draw-“

  
“Got a pair!” said Bitch-sensei triumphantly.

He did not appreciate them going through his cupboards, and they only calmed down when Maehara accidently set off a smoke bomb that was hidden under his dresser. They had avoided setting off the smoke alarm, but Maehara was now laying on the floor, looking rather ‘exploded’. He glared at Karma, as he got changed, his head sticking under the paper wall that Karma was changing behind. 

  
“Your abs aren’t as defined as Asano’s,” he commented sulkily from his place on the floor as Karma put on his outfit for the evening. Karma just stuck his tongue out, to which Maeahra imitated him, before both of them grinned. He loved his friends.

  
Kayano and Bitch-sensei had agreed to go with Karma to whatever restaurant he was bound to end up in, but sit at another table. They were going to analyse the situation and give him tips for next time. As one changed into their disguise, the other did hair and accessory before they switched.

  
“You have a piercing?” Kayano asked incredulously.

  
“Wanna see where else I’m pierced? I may be gay but I can show you if you want-“ Karma joked and everyone did a collective ewwww.

  
“I like a man with piercings. Plus it suits your bad boy persona. I think Asano will appreciate it too,” winked Bitch-sensei, as she placed the black studs in his ear, while Kayano returned to ‘styling’ his hair (more like fucking it up until it looked artfully messy rather than messy messy is what she had said, again, Karma didn’t take offence despite the slander that his appearance had had this evening).

  
They finally pulled him up to the mirror and Karma had to admit that he was impressed. The black skinny jeans were dark enough to look formal, but clean and unripped enough to have that edge to them. He had a crimson dress shirt on from Maehara, with a black tie done loosely around his neck. He had the just-rolled-out-of-bed-sexy hair, with black earrings and the tiniest line of eyeline that wasn’t noticeable apart from up close, but made his eyes look brighter. The black dress shoes on his feet were kind of off, but while Nagisa had argued for the boots, they did look too punk for semi-formal. He had his leather jacket that would be taken off at the restaurant, but would allow his outfit to be laid back whilst with Asano on the walk/drive there. Overall, he looked sexy and felt confident. It was an outfit he would actually wear, and should the restaurant be more or less formal, it could be altered accordingly. He had this in the bag.

  
He put his leather jacket on as they discussed the final arrangements for his plan. He would message Kayano and Bitch-sensei when he knew where he and Asano would be going, and they would get there at around the same time (having totally not been following them the whole time). They would give him a bouquet of flowers which would then be given to Asano upon seeing Gerald and Saski-sensei. Then he would have a romantic meal, or do whatever the fuck Asano had planned, whilst simultaneously pissing Asano off. The only way that it could go wrong was if Asano out-romanced him, but in the event that he was losing, which was not going to happen, Isogai would step in, having seen Karma and Asano and would sit down for a chat. It was fool-proof. His fuck-up from this morning wouldn't even matter after tonight.

* * *

Bitch-sensei dropped him off a road away from the Asano’s house at, or more accurately, mansion. Karma had a big house, but holy fuck. He didn’t know principals were paid that much, jeez. He tried his best to look bored at as walked up the drive. The familiar feeling of leather on his back was reassuring, and the fact that he was late was also familiar, but he knew for someone as punctual as Asano it would be infuriating. He knocked on the door, and waited. And waited. And waited? Finally there was noise and the door opened, and on the other side was someone who looked like a maid.

  
“Who are you dear?” she asked, but Karma was not going to take the bait. Asano could play a devious game, but he was going to play better. He decided he was going to take a page out of Asano’s book, and charm the shit out of his staff.

  
“I’m his boyfriend miss, is he home? I’m taking him on a date.” He flashed her a charming smile, and her cheeks reddened, and she cooed.

“Such a good boyfriend! That brat is currently out buying groceries, is this a surprise date? He hasn’t mentioned anything to any of us!” she exclaimed, stepping aside to let him in.

  
Karma internally grinned. Asano could pretend all he wanted, but he wouldn’t fool Karma.

“Yes it is, I’m taking him to a restaurant,” Karma hedged his bets with the restaurant, and it seemingly paid off, the maid was interested.

  
“Well dear, I’m glad he’s found someone as good-looking as him to date. If you ever need any advice or embarrassing stories, here is the staff phone. We’d all be glad for a call from you!” 

  
They sat and talked for 5 minutes, the house-keeper was introduced as Tamiko-sama. Karma watched as the clocked ticked from 10 past 7, to quarter past. He started to fidget, as the house-keeper had to leave to finish cleaning the kitchen, but he wasn’t going to look angsty no matter how late Asano was.

  
At exactly 17 past 7, the door opened and Gakushuu walked in, holding a bag of groceries, still in school clothes? He looked startled to see Karma, that nerd hadn’t actually _forgotten_ had he??

  
“Ne Gakushuu! Your pretty boyfriend is here to take you on a date!” called Tamiko-sama from the other room. Asano looked slightly annoyed at the words of praise coming from his house-keeper, and Karma watched as the wheels slowly turned in his head. God, he can’t have forgotten, that boy’s memory was impeccable.

  
“Oh is it Monday? You’re early aren’t you?” Gakushuu questioned, raising an eyebrow before critically viewing his appearance, “A bit eager aren’t you?”

  
Karma tried not to twitch, and simply smiled, responding, “but babe, Monday is our date night! I’m sorry I didn’t bring the flowers you like, but I’ll bring them next time, I promise.”

He heard the pleased coo come from the kitchen, and Tamiko-sama appeared and took the groceries from Asano.

  
“Brat! Treat your lovely boyfriend with more respect!” scolded Tamiko-sama as she left for the kitchen. Gakushuu looked disgruntled and gave him a wary look, before taking his tie off and stretching.

  
“Oh-kay then. Where are you taking me?”

  
Karma short-circuited.

  
“Ah, erm, its your turn to plan the date dearest,” Karma forced out between gritted teeth. 

  
Asano simply raised an eyebrow, and simply shrugged before going upstairs, leaving Karma to sit there bewildered. He can’t have forgotten. No way. He was faking it.

He had forgotten, hadn’t he???

The Asano he knew would never ever stand to be late for an appointment, let alone a date where exams where on the line. If he had faked it, Karma was gonna be so pissed, he had planned to do that on his turn for date planning. 

  
A few minutes later, he reappeared, in an outfit with around the same levels of casualness as Karma, which annoyed him because he had spent hours on his outfit and Asano had just based his off of the levels of formality that Karma had on—

  
Asano was in a royal blue turtle-neck, and a silver necklace over the top. Unlike Karma, his eyeliner wasn’t subtle, and his hair was simply a messier style of what he normally wore. And he had on very tight black jeans, and okay maybe Kayano had a point about the ass. He put on a beige long-coat over his outfit, and pulled on tan boots.  
He looked just as good as Karma and it would’ve annoyed him, but Asano was known for looking great and the fact that Karma looked as good, if not better. Well, it had taken Asano 2mintues and him and hour so maybe he was a little annoyed-

  
“Well, are you gonna stand there all night?” Asano said, half-way out of the door. Karma followed him out, and there was a silence that would’ve been awkward, had they not been walking so goddamn fast what the fuck.

  
“So, uh, where was Satan senior?” Karma said, a pace or two behind Asano, who gave his the patented glare which had less effect when he was in really tight trousers. Like, really tight. Kayano would be very happy to be here right no, because he was getting an eyeful, yeesh.

  
“Meeting. He doesn’t come home until late on Mondays,” Asano replied, turning a corner at the speed of light, leaving Karma to scramble after him.

  
They arrived at the door of a fancy restaurant, with a very long queue of people by the door. A muscled man by the door looked annoyed as Asano walked completely past the queue, ignoring the cries behind him.

  
“Hey! I’ve been here 45 minutes!”

  
“45!? I’ve been here an hour!!”

  
  
Fuck. It was going to be hard to get Isogai in, let alone Bitch-sensei and Kayano. Kayano couldn’t reveal her identity, it was just up to Bitch-sensei to flirt her way in.  
Well, looks like he was on his own.

  
It was only when he read the sign did he start to get scared. Asano approached the bouncer, and flashed him a charming grin not dissimilar to what Karma had done earlier. Karma approached behind him, and nearly died.

  
“Gakushuu Asano, 2 tables for 2 at 7.45 exactly. We should be on the VIP list.”

  
That fucktard had planned this. All of it. He hadn’t forgotten. It was such a sly move, and it especially stung as it was something Karma would normally pull. Oh he was gonna pay, screw the crowd, screw the points, Karma was going to beat his ass right there.

  
“Of-f Course! An Asano can just go right in!! The waiter may talk to you Asano-san, but just walk past,” The bouncer stammered, looking like he’d just shit himself at hearing his name.

  
Karma’s hands balled into fists as Asano strolled to the door of the French restaurant, of course, Karma spoke 6 languages and none of them were remotely similar to French-  
Gakushuu opened the door with a condescending smile, and a very smug look on his face. 

  
“Mon cheri,” he said as he held the door open for Karma, and Saski-sensei who was so conveniently behind him clapped at the words.

  
He steeled his nerves, and despite how clearly the cards were in Asano’s favour, took the flowers from behind his back where Maehara had given them to him having ‘brushed past’ him earlier, and handed them to Asano as he went through the door right in the lion’s den.

  
“Merci,” Karma responded with, using up all the French he knew. Asano looked surprised at the flowers, and Karma knew he was still going to win. He may look better than him, have planned a date in a restaurant where Karma couldn’t understand a thing, have irritated the fuck out of him with the forgetting stunt, but he was still going to pull through, he’d done it once he’d do it again goddamn it.

  
All of it didn’t matter. He was still going to _win_.

* * *

  
They stood outside the restaurant and Gakushuu was very pleased to see the absolute look of ire on Akabane's face as he realised that Asano had not forgotten. Oh yes, the clock was exactly 7.45 and they were right on time. The cherry on top was when he realised the French sign and looked about to crack right there. You may have been polishing up on your Spanish Karma, but French was still unknown territory for the red-head. Gakushuu saw Saski-sensei approach and pulled out his most irritating smile .  
“Mon cheri,” he said as he held the door open for everyone. Gerald looked impressed and Saski-sensei clapped.

This was too easy.

However, with an equally terrifying smile, Karma handed him a pretty bouquet of roses before slinking through the door with a “Merci”.

  
The roses were pink. Gakushuu hated pink.

  
Saski-sensei looked happy at the flowers, and Gerald thanked him as they walked inside.

  
Fuck, maybe he’d underestimated Akabane. He had pulled that annoying stunt with Tamiko, and hadn’t fallen for the semi-formal bluff. So the devil can be charming too huh?   
Well, it didn’t matter. He was going to win anyway. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hate this chapter so much, god I've rewritten it like 4 times but it still sucks. Anyway I'm sorry I hope it wasn't too shit and OOC. 
> 
> Next up- Gakushuu and Karma have definitely both underestimated each other. Featuring sexual tension and Gerald.


	4. The Death Of Gakushuu's Sanity Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cue the date (and tension). Sparks fly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I based this chapter off one of my favourite fics of all time (kudos to you if you recognise it!). Sorry its late, school is shitty and life is shitty. I had fun writing this though.
> 
> Enjoy!

Gakushuu let the self-doubt dissipate in the interest of letting the red-head approach the maître d’, a move that would hopefully initiate a chain reaction to eat away the sudden and remarkable self-restraint that Karma had appeared to suddenly have acquired. When the evening finally concluded in the firestorm of Karma’s temper, none of it would be directly at Gakushuu’s hands, who could feel his patience already running thin. Charm your way out of a triple homicide, god-father. Hopefully, one of the three wouldn’t be him.

“Bonsoir, monsieur,” greeted the lanky maître d’ with a slightly dubious expression. To be fair, it was two high-school boys going on a date with their teacher escorting them. It wouldn’t give off the most amazing initial impression. Gakushuu fought back the giggle that rose in his throat at the scared widening of Karma’s eyes. He was feeling the pleasant, anticipatory tingle that hit him with the opening strike of a judo match, or when he was first going into an exam. He hadn’t had this much fun on a date for a long time, or this much of a challenge. Well, Karma did tend to do that to you right?

“Hi,” he replied hesitantly. The maître d’s expression closed off completely. Gakushuu had chosen a quite expensive foreign restaurant where the staff were all French, and spoke only French. Anything else was ignored. There had been some disgruntled Japanese reviews, but it was mainly aimed at French tourists, and he had hoped the staff would be as rude as the reviews said. So far he was not disappointed.

“I think we have a reservation?” Akabane continued, casting a glare back at Gakushuu for the rude treatment from the staff. Gakushuu pulled off the look of ‘handsome nonchalance’ and awaited the maître d’s look of ill-hidden irritation.

( _God this is a French restaurant, and these homosexuals are in here being stupid. Aren’t they supposed to be cultured?_ Thought the maître d’, in French as it was a French restaurant.)

The maitre d’ sniffed at Karma and looked back down at his book. It seemed he was going to ignore anything else. Karma’s eyes flashed and Gakushuu decided it was time to drive the knife in.

“J'ai une réservation pour deux tables sous le nom d'Asano (I have a reservation for two tables under the name of Asano),” Gakushuu stated easily, enjoying the artistic contrast of Karma’s expression slowly sinking into a look of comprehending fury just as the maitre d’ face opened back up cordially. And just for the cherry on top, Saski-sensei started clapping again. As if accepting some hidden password, the door to Gakushuu’s victory swung open with the wide sweep of the maitre d’’s arm.

“Oui. This way messieurs."

As they were led back to a quiet, candlelit table, Karma looped an arm around Gakushuu’s shoulders and breathed against his ear. It was incredibly difficult to discern what emotion was responsible for the subsequent shiver that went through the strawberry-blond, but Gakushuu would have died before admitting anything other than anticipation for Karma’s eventual murder.

“I am going to murder you,” Karma whispered in a deep voice, deeper than what Gakushuu had expected from him. And, talking about murder. He was glad the two of them were on the same page. “I will make you scream in every damn language you know before I’m done with you too.”

He felt Karma’s knife against his chest, and had to walk very calmly to avoid being cut. Gakushuu ran his fingers through Karma’s hair, enjoying how absolutely fake the gesture was, arching up carefully to avoid the knife in his way. Karma was 1 cm taller at this moment, but Gakushuu had been eating lots of protein and stretching. He would overtake him eventually.

“Kinky. I didn’t know you had it in you, my dear” he countered just as suavely.

Karma breathed out a laugh, still against his ear that was provoking things in Asano that he didn’t like to admit, and released him slowly before sitting down the open chair with a charming smile.

Gakushuu’s eyes narrowed. It couldn’t be. The delinquent loner shouldn’t be able to handle social cues. It was inconceivable that he had same agenda as Gakushuu for the evening. He had seen Karma hold a boy at knife point for looking at him wrong. Gakushuu took a seat with a retaliating smile and a smile at Saski-sensei and Gerald as they took their seats at the table next door. Gerald seemed pretty content to let them get on with it, but he could see Saski-sensei looking at the two of them. Right, as they were being watched, he would have to step it up a notch.

“Monsieur, please pardon the observation, but you are bleeding from a slash in your shirt.” Their pretty waitress was all wide eyes. She looked Japanese, and unfortunately had clocked that one of them couldn’t speak French. Drat. Asano looked rather shocked and realised that yes, he was bleeding. He couldn’t believe that that bastard had drawn blood. Karma hid his predatory smile as he took a piece of bread from the bread basket and began to pick at it. Your turn, Asano-kun. Gakushuu gave a theatrical sigh and sent a flirtatious look at the waitress before smiling at Karma.

“I’m aware, thank you. My date stabbed me earlier this evening.” Gakushuu replied in French. The best part is that Karma couldn’t understand. Gakushuu gleefully observed the response: the waitress blinked, squinted suspiciously, and turned to Karma in quiet indignation. Karma looked very disgruntled, as he couldn’t dissect the look the waitress was giving them. Noticing his French, she decided to switch the language, very pointedly turning her back on Karma and returning the flirty smile Gakushuu had given her.

"Désirez vous quelque chose à boire, monsieur (would you like something to drink)?" Ah, apparently he had charmed another women who was going to help him bring down the nuisance to society that was sitting opposite him. This will be such a wondrous night.

"La carte des vins, s'il vous plait (the list of wines pleases)." Slightly appeased but not quite sure whether or not to ID him, the waitress passed Gakuhuu the wine list with a tentative smile. Skimming the list, Gakushuu settled on a bottle of expensive red for Saski-san and Gerald and some low alcohol champagne with the full intention of leaving Karma to shoulder the tab. All in French, naturally. Nodding, she seemed content to serve the two students the not very alcoholic wine without ID and simply passed out the menus and disappeared into a back portion of the restaurant. Gakushuu looked down at the menu and was very pleased to find it all written in French, but when he looked up at Karma he noticed that he had his menu already closed with a serene smile that turned wicked when he saw Gakushuu looking.

“Already chosen your order?”

“Yes, thank you. You’ve chosen a very nice restaurant Gakushuu-kun,” Karma replied, looking far too calm for Gakushuu’s liking.

He resisted with a lot of effort to rip up the menu right there and decided on his order- he went for the lobster with a bitter sauce, seeing as he would at least eat what he liked if he was going to suffer the boring company this evening. Hey, he had peculiar tastes, okay? The waitress returned with the drinks and took their order. Gakushuu ordered immaculately in French and, all Karma said was, “The same for me please,”. Asano grit his teeth and had to collect himself for a second. He should’ve seen that coming for a mile away. Well, it was no matter in the end. Karma may have passed the first hurdle, but does he know how to open a lobster? Probably not. And for a boy with a renowned sweet tooth the bitter sauce should ruin it. Okay, okay don’t worry Gakushuu, you still have it all under control. No one beats an Asano. Not now, not ever. He may have won the battle, but he wouldn’t win the war. Gakushuu suddenly registered the amount of people he recognized coming into the restaurant. That was Kazuki-kun, and oh look its Ren, and Hinata-chan. Wait Ren??? A good chunk of his classmates were present in the restaurant, but thankfully with where they were sitting they could see them but the classmates couldn’t see the date. They would need a reservation, and he was certain a lot of them didn’t. (Past Gakushuu is an idiot. These people were obsessed.)

“So, cupcake, how way your day today? Ruin any lives?”

Gakushuu was stunned. _Cupcake_. The audacity. It was said with soft smile with a tad too much insanity to be charming, but nevertheless an attempt was made. How was Karma Akabane, spawn of satan and the world’s most impolite individual flirting???

“Not too bad sprinkle, I just blackmailed the school body into giving me the funding I need for my, erm project. How about you sugar-puff?” Gakushuu replied, again with too much sarcasm to be genuine, but Saski-sensei was not quite in earshot. Karma nodded in understanding before taking a sip of his champagne and tried but low-key failed not to blanch at the bitter alcohol taste. Well, babe, if that’s too bitter for you wait for the lobster, Gakushuu though gleefully to himself.

“Nothing too much, broke a girl’s phone and put 3 men in hospital. Aren’t you glad you have such a strong attractive boyfriend to protect you snookums?” Karma drawled, a sharp , flirtatious grin appearing.

Gakushuu bit the inside of his lip to stop himself from screaming expletives, and batted his eyelashes coyly.

“Can’t say I would know, your wrist still seems numb from Tuesday. I’ll massage it for you later if you’d like baby,” Gakushuu commented in a sultry voice (and by massage I mean fracture into little pieces so that you’re in so much pain you can never come into school again).

Karma’s eyebrow twitched, and replied, “Well in return I can give you a full body massage, if you know what I mean sweetheart,” Karma winked (Saski-sensei gasped an fanned herself “Oh Karma, you are naughty” completely missing Karma’s hidden message of I’ll dislocate every bone in your body so you can never take exams again you nerd).

They sipped their alcohol and made suggestive eye-contact, glad that the other person was on the same page. Gakushuu ran his foot up Karma’s leg and at the raised eyebrow dug his foot into his crotch, leaving Karma to turn the choke of pain into a cough.

“Darling, don’t tease me in public. Wait till we are in private at least,” Karma said with a voice that was higher than normal, and oh was that pain? I’m so sorry, maybe this is too hard for you, you should drop out-

Resolutely ignoring the camera shutters and oooOOoohhhs coming from across the building, Gakushuu watched the waitress come with their food and ew, were those heart-shaped plates? The waitress placed Gakushuu’s plate down with a sweet smile, before slamming Karma’s down with a sneer, gosh Gakushuu loved women. No man could ever be that petty and get away with it. After a few long suggestive stares from her she finally left, leaving the couple to their lobster. Gakushuu chose this moment to reach for the bread basket, and let Karma flounder for a bit as he waited for Gakushuu to open his first. When it was clear that no, Karma was going to have to sort this one out himself, he began to cut into his lobster, and Gakushuu laughed internally at the shell in the meat before a fork was thrust into his face.

“Here honey, have a taste. Let me pamper you for once.” Gakushuu looked distastefully at the bits of shell littered with lobster meat before tentatively accepting the forkful, listening to the camera’s go off that sounded suspiciously like a death toll. His classmates had somehow made it around the side of the building and were not-so-surreptitiously filming the affair. He watch the maître d’ send more students round as his stuffed pockets FILLED with cash bulged. To be fair, he would’ve done the same himself.

"Crunchy," Gakushuu commented dryly, and Karma couldn't hold back his amused snort.

Quickly breaking his own lobster shell correctly to avoid more force-feeding Gakushuu watched as Karma copied him with a happy smile, and they both ate in silence together. Karma gagged a few times, but that was the only sound for a while.

With a note of concern, Gakushuu watched as more and more students began to cram into the small space, and noticed how they inched closer and closer to Karma’s back. From where the red-head was sitting, he was oblivious to the commotion. Well, this was his chance to turn the tables. Gakushuu reached out and wiped his thumb across Karma’s lips, swiping the but of sauce that was there before bringing it to his own tongue with a suggestive gaze. He watched with delight as the cameras went off, Saski-sensei had a weak moment and Karma’s cheeks went red. From embarrassment. Totally.

However in this commotion his classmates managed to knock over a lamp, which fell into the lantern on their table. Gakushuu caught it just in time, but wasn’t fast enough to stop the tea light falling in Karma’s general direction. Oops. It seemed that Karma had had the same thought process as him, and tenderly clasped Gakushuu’s hands in his own, who wouldn’t give his partner the satisfaction of seeing him wince as his fingers were dislocated.

“Darling, did I tell you that you look beautiful tonight?” Karma said with such false admiration that even a six year old wouldn’t be fooled, but goddamn apparently people were thick. The cameras said it all. Luckily, fate had Asano’s back.

“No, babe you didn’t. But I just wanted to tell you that, ahem, your crotch is smoking.”

Karma looked taken aback at the boldness of the statement but with a grin too lewd to be thinking anything else other than you’ve screwed yourself there Gakushuu, ran his fingers suggestively down Gakushuu’s wrists.

“Well, baby boy, you can see more later if you insist,” he saucily stated, and bla bla more cameras, gasps. It was getting old.

“Fortunately enough for me, dearest, I meant it literally.”

Karma glanced down and promptly burst into a frantic bout of flailing and swearing, having discovered the tiny tea-light that had struck up quite the conversation with his jeans. The ensuing “scuffle” that sent everyone in a three block radius running for cover marked the first (but not the last) they had ever had while one of them was trouser less. Oh, and a burning building.

* * *

Karma stood trouser-less as he watched the building go up in flames. He felt a tap to his shoulder and was disappointed to feel his night get even worse a class-mate handed him a box of condoms. She had gone to the effort of getting ribbed ones, and having scribbled out the her and replaced it with his in the ‘for his pleasure’. The girl nudged him and winked before Naruto running away into the distance. What the fuck.

* * *

The principal was watching the television with a distracted frown as a live news caster reported on a romantic that had concluded in three blocks of destruction. Several cars were on fire in the street behind him, and off to the left a woman sobbed hysterically in the doorway of her apartment, as school children surrounded the building all with phones out, frantically searching for the two perpetrators who had apparently ‘fled the scene.’

“THEY ARE HAVING SEX!” Saski-san proclaimed upon answering the phone.

He blinked in surprise as he heard excited chatter come from the other side of the line. “Right now?” He asked in confusion as Gerald joined the call, sounding miserable.

“Probably. I can’t say. We didn’t witness it, but they are totally sleeping together.” She paused for dramatic effect. “They had on matching socks.”

The principal chewed his lip in worried thoughtfulness.

“Is this a modern thing? Sock sharing and sex?”

“No,” Gerald sighed. “No it is not.”

Saski moved on to her next piece of evidence. “That is just the START. Karma lost his pants an hour and a half into the date!”

Once more an excited murmur could be heard in the background.

“Sounds promising,” the principal conceded warily. He ended the call and looked in distress as flaming debris rained down on the onlookers. Maybe he needed to chat with the boys about having a more chaperoned date. Possibly in school this time.

Well, he thought, it could have gone worse. At least they had sex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am Saski-sensei. I can't lie.


	5. Welcome to Crazy Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More insanity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! I've had a lot on irl, and school exams are coming up relatively soon.
> 
> But for now, have some horrible writing that might make you happy.
> 
> Listened to Daddy issues by the Neighbourhood on repeat making this- cmon it's definitely Karma signing to Gakushuu you can FITE ME OVER THIS  
> 
> 
> Its Karma's POV because I love him. Enough said.

The principal looked very solemn as the two boys were called into his office the next day. He felt solemn. He had experienced not one, but 12 premonitions over the past 24 hours, ranging form shivers to outright hallucinations. He had tactfully shoved them under a metaphorical rug and blamed them on the 4 glasses of whiskey he had drunk yesterday evening.

How, _just how in the world_ do _TWO BOYS_ , burn not just a restaurant down, but the surrounding two houses down. He knew of Karma’s past, yeah sure, the boy had escaped two serious arson prosecution with nothing even going on his record, and he had seen personally the his violent tendencies the boy had, especially related to one Gakushuu Asano. On the other end of the spectrum, Gakushuu was one of the most manipulative, controlling boys he had ever met, with an even more manipulative, controlling father who had managed to not only instil sadistic tendencies in the boy but inherently masochistic ones too. All capped off with black belts in about 7 different martial arts.

The principal shivered again.

  
Okay, in hindsight this idea had not been one of his best ones. It was like putting a racoon with rabies in a cage with a feral cat. There was a small chance that the two would bond, but overall it was most likely to end in bloodshed, _**MOST LIKELY HIS WHEN BOTH ESCAPED AND CAME FOR VENGENCE**_ —

Calm down, calm down. He subtly pinched himself as he internally screamed.

  
(Karma sent Gakushuu an inquisitive look, to which he just shrugged. Let the poor man have his existential crisis in peace.)

  
There was a small chance. Both boys were very compatible, and had an undeniable obsession with each other. And, in the very least, it focused their fire-power away from the student body and towards each other. 

  
At the end of the day, even when the unfortunate blow back did come, at least they will be working together to achieve it. Some sick bonding for two sick children, the principal chuckled to himself.

  
(Okay, he’s gone insane, Karma mouthed to Gakushuu and kicked his foot. He’s trying, leave him be, mouthed Gakushuu back, and retaliated with a kick.)

  
Instilled with a new sense of confidence, the principal looked up only to see the two boys kicking each other. Quite hard. Karma had Gakushuu by the tie and was gripping his trouser leg behind the knee, while Gakushuu had one foot firmly planted in Karma’s chest and was swinging his fists for a connection to Karma’s head. However due to the hand on his tie, all he could succeed in was gripping Karma by the hair and tugging.

  
He nearly cried. Its gonna be okay, remember what the therapist said, deep breaths, _whoooo_ , in, _whoooooo_ , out-

  
Hang on. 

  
Looking up once more, the principal saw the full grins blossoming on their faces. Karma’s face was tugged back, and his scalp looked like it was suffering, but the (okay, it was a little manic, and his incisors were very visible, but semantics) grin on his face was fully fledged. Gakushuu was being forced into what looked like a very uncomfortable position, one leg still on Karma’s chest and one being pulled up towards the ceiling as his back rested on the chair, but the GRIN. It matched Karma’s!!!! He checked himself before he fully embraced Saski-sensei (who had vehemently declared that the two boys were sleeping together secretly ).

  
Maybe there was hope after all.

  
Clearing his throat with a small smile of his own, the principal watched as the boys immediately froze and disentangled themselves from each other. 

  
“Please, in future, refrain from partaking in foreplay in my office. It’s very unsanitary.”

Ew, was he going to have to get his cleaner in again? One of them probably came from that realistically, he realised, geez he was going to have to sit in an office with that all day until the cleaner could come. Properly disgusted, he watched as the boys turned varying shades of red. Aw, they were so cute. 

  
“Since the last date went, uh, with mixed success, I think the next date should take place under more supervised conditions.” He looked the two of them in the eye. “How you you two say the date went? Gakushuu-kun?”

  
Gakushuu’s eye twitched. “I agree, I think there were areas to improve upon, but I enjoyed spending time with Karma-chan,” he simpered with a hit-or-miss attempt at affection. “Saski-sensei was just wonderful, and the food was amazing.” (translated to- I enjoyed watching Karma choke on his lobster and having his trousers burned off him) Relatively appeased, the principal moved on. 

  
“Karma-kun?”

  
With an equally hit-or-miss attempt at a flirtatious tone Karma responded, “I’m just so sad that my date with cupcake was cut short, but we did have fun afterwards,” with a heavy, over done wink (translated to- I had fun watching you squirm when I sprained your wrist and enjoyed chasing you with a knife until you just so happened to run off like a coward).

  
“Oh, I won’t ask for more details, but make sure the two of you stay safe,” the principal responded hurriedly with.

  
Karma seemed intent on ruining his office even more, and smirked.

  
“Don’t worry sir, we didn’t go that far, Shuuey had to keep his girly virtue intact,” he said with a grin at Gakushuu, who acted like the fist he had thrown was simply there to pat Karma on the head.

  
“Well, I’m glad you’re getting along better,” (translated to- secretly glad that his godson was still a virgin what would Gakuhou do if he found out-) “so much so, I’m thinking of moving the date forward to Friday if you two are okay with it.” Was that pushing it? Thought the principal. No no, strike while the iron is hot, don’t let manipulative men hold you back. God it was just like high school. 

  
“Really, sir, I don’t think that’s necessary-“

  
“We are quite happy to wait-“

  
“It’s settled then! Friday it is,” with a clap the principal rose ignored the withering look Gakushuu gave him. 

  
“Oh and by the way boys, I think it will be in your best interests to play nice at school to. We wouldn’t want a teacher reporting back to Saski-sensei or me, would we now?” The boys both looked scared by this but the ‘scheming faces’ were quickly put on. Phew, at least the school would be safe from their fights now. He could divert the property-damage funds into his pay-check for all of this.

  
“Now, you two boys get going! Can’t have you late for class! Stay out of trouble!” He forced them out of the office, desperate to get his wits together again.

  
Locking and bolting the door (he was not having Gakuhou break in after last night), he gingerly sidestepped where the two boys had been fighting (nope, not stepping in anything today satan) and promptly collapsed in his chair.

  
Now what scared him most, was that Gakuhou still didn’t know. He knew he was probably find out by this evening, but he knew that him and his son’s communication wasn’t great. It had improved after middle-school, but not by much. They awkwardly skirted around each other now, but both cared very deeply about the other, despite thinking that their familial feelings were one-sided. At least they were trying. Until then, he had to fend off the emotionally constipated father who cared too much about his son to not know what was going on, but was too proud to ask him personally.

As if summoned by some cult chant (who knew, that man seemed telepathic sometimes) the phone began to ring– ‘This is about Gakushuu’ was what the number was titled (really, it had gotten to that point. The man didn’t even try to hide it.) The principal declined the call, and decided he would deal with those flames of wrath later. Right now he needed a drink.

* * *

Kabaya and Rukiyo met Karma outside, and Ren, Koyoma, Akari and Seo were waiting for Gakushuu. Rukiyo waited until Karma was beside her before grabbing his hand. She stuck out her tongue at Ren who looked too offended by the gesture (he had no clue what they were talking about before, but from the giggles coming from the Virtuosos it was definitely at Ren’s expense). She gave Asano a critical eye, to which he simply returned with a raised eyebrow. The intimidation backfired very quickly as Rukiyo turned the critical eye into a very obvious once over and Kabaya had to step in.

“So, when’s the next date guys?” he said, choosing the conversation topic ~~not~~ very wisely.

  
“Friday unfortunately,” Gakushuu said tiredly and Koyoma rubbed at his back sympathetically. 

  
“Whatever are you talking about snookums? You know you can’t resist me! Plus, yOu ShOulD’nT bE sO MeaN abOuT yOUr DatE,” Karma replied mockingly. Asano simply rolled his eyes, sniffed and turned on his hell. His lapdogs looked stunned and rushed after him.

  
“See you in class second-place!” Karma called to him as he left, to which he was graciously responded with a middle finger. 

  
When he turned back to his friends, Rukiyo was practically vibrating and Kabaya just looked like the apocalypse had happened. At his questioning look they simply looked at each other.

  
“Erm, you guys alright?” Karma asked, wondering what the fuck was happening to everyone. 

  
“NOTHING!” Rukiyo said, obviously suggesting there was definitely more than nothing going on.

  
Kabaya sighed, gave Karma a smile that said ‘I don’t agree with your choices but I respect you’. 

“Come on guys, there’s cake in the lunch-hall.”

* * *

  
It seemed that the world had gone crazy. Insane. Off-its-rocker.

Karma knew this because of 2 reasons.

Number 1, because more than 10 strangers had come up to him to ask about his date. Some were really nice, listening attentively as he verbally bashed Gakushuu’s ‘kissing skills’ (which he knew next to nothing about but let them think that Asano’s breath smelled perpetually of garlic). Some, were more aggressive in their style of approach. Lube projectiles had been thrown across the classroom at him, condom boxes hastily stuffed into his bag and more than one girl had thrown fists. He was ending the day having gained 2 lube bottle, 4 packs of condoms and a split lip. Reason 2 was the more concerning reason.

Reason 2 was that the only person who seemed sane at this moment in time was none other than Gakushuu Asano. 

  
After 4th period on Wednesday he was shoved into a classroom with he door locked behind him. Three students were forcibly holding the door back after he had picked the lock and escaped the time before, which he did not appreciate. Taking a look around the room, he saw Asano seated at a table with a girl who appeared to be in the year below. Upon seeing Karma, she began to vibrate in her seat. 

  
“D-don’t m,m-mind me you two!! Ddo what-everr you w-want!!” she stammered as she threw herself from the table where she was being tutored.

  
Now, in case Karma hadn’t been clear enough, the school had gone insane. INSANE.

People seemed to have accepted the preposterous notion that he and Gakushuu were together in a happy teenage relationship, and were the two of them had been thrust into the spotlight more than usual. Unfortunately, due to Gakushuu-kun’s ‘approachable yet untouchable’ persona Karma seemed to be taking the burnt of the questions and harassment. For someone who wasn’t often in the limelight, it was a little jarring.

The thing was, they weren’t even pretending at school. If a teacher was around they would be lovingly-violent, or sarcastically affectionate, but for the most part they ignored each other. Karma would even go to the point of saying that he missed their daily fights. It let him blow off steam. At the moment he was just left twitchy and annoyed, and was getting closer and closer to hurting some poor innocent bystander.

  
He turned back to Gakushuu and tried to ignore the 3 phones in the window and sighed. Maybe he could have a normal conversation with him. Yes, normalcy was what he needed. Some of Asano’s scathing intellect and violent threats were exactly what was necessary. It always calmed him down.

  
“Asano-kun, are you letting your student go un-tutored? How very unprofessional of you.” The poor girl was shaking so much, she could barely stand. Asano spared her a glance before rolling his eyes at Karma. 

  
“If she wanted to be tutored that desperately, she could sit down,” he said, addressing the girl. Once it was obvious that she wasn’t going to move, he turned his full attention to Karma. 

  
“Well, spawn of satan, how has this week been treating you so far?” Gakushuu asked.

  
Karma shrugged, “Not too bad, embodiment of everything I hate. Despite the fact that people have seemingly gone crazy in this school, its been okay. I beat you on a maths test after all,” Karma responded with a little smirk and was satisfied to see Gakushuu’s eyebrow twitch.

  
“Fluke, I can assure you,” Gakushuu quickly replied. “But, as much as I hate to do it, I agree. People seem to be more stupid than usual.”

  
“*gasp!* the mightly ruler thinks his subordinates are stupid? Gosh, never would’ve thought.” 

  
They were interrupted by a banging, and they turned to the only other person in the room. The poor girl had been trembling so much that when she had tried to get her phone out to film them, she had dropped and smashed it. With another stuttered ‘don’t mind me!!!’ she tried to blend into the wall.

  
(Considering that the wall was white and she was wearing black, it was a futile effort. )

  
Asano sighed, and grumbled something about ‘always having company’. He took a few more steps towards Karma and pretended to ignore the squeak that came from across the room.

  
With a voice thick with false sympathy, Asano said, “My Darling beloved!!! You’re hurt. Let me see the wound.” He then proceeded to swipe his thumb over Karma’s lip where it was split, HARD ow ow that hurt you bastard, but the girl began to hyperventilate. Catching onto the plan, Karma played along.

  
“I got it defending you, my honey-suckle. I would never let people talk like that about you,” Karma announced with an air of gallantry, and swept Gakushuu against his chest just as hard, who landed with a pained ‘oomph’ as his ankle twisted around a chair. Karma never claimed to not be petty.

  
Just as planned, with a theatrical sigh, the girl passed out over the floor. Upon her thump, they disentangled themselves. 

  
“Well, I don’t care how insane the school is acting, I’m still going to win.” Gakushuu claimed, dusting himself off.

  
“Hah, you can wish, second-place, but don’t get your hopes up too high,” Karma responded with a grin. For a second they just grinned at each, basking in the normalcy for a second. 

  
But, all good things must come to an end. The door was opened with a flourish, and Saski-sensei appeared with two students with massive video cameras.

  
“IF YOU CATCH THEM KISSING I’LL GIVE YOU EXTRA CREDIT!” she roared, and students proceeded to swarm in like a flood of water, each one holding a phone. The two boys were swept away in a stream of hormonal teenagers, and soon a fight began.

  
“I’VE GOT ONE OF ASANO’S SHOES!!!” shouted one girl as Karma wrestled off two boys in the year above, one of whom successfully grabbed Karma’s blazer, as two girls from his class clawed at his hair and face.

He saw Gakushuu being sat on by 3 people as they raided his pockets for things and asked him lots of inappropriate questions. He looked as scared as Karma felt.

  
Karma felt a hand at his ass, that definietly groped for too long but there was nothing he could do as two girls were holding his arms out, before someone announced, “I HAVE HIS WALLET!” and just like that the crowd was gone, ushered out by the principal, who looked like he had seen a ghost. 

  
The crowd remained outside, pouring over their spoils of war, and Karma turned to see Gakushuu looked as dishevelled as he felt. Well, on the bright side, Asano looked as if he had been run over by a bus. That was always a positive. 

  
“Boys… just please try and stay out of trouble…” the principal begged, and Karma had never seen a grown man look that manic. He was a little scared, not going to lie. The feral look in the principals eyes was one of a man who would definitely resort to violence.

  
“Karma, I want to discuss your date. Asano, you are welcome to stay, but if you want to keep it a surprise you can leave,” the principal continued, voice breaking more than once in that sentence.

Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Gakushuu swiftly departed, before being engulfed by the crowd once more. His cry was silenced by the door shutting, and Karma was left to discuss date plans about a boy he hated with an unhinged man.

  
“Since we don’t want a repeat of last time, I am leaving the arrangement of your date to your year group.” The principal said and Karma felt the noose around his neck tighten.

His year group??? Had the man really lost the plot????

  
“You will have a romantic group date with your friends- nothing will burn down, nothing will go wrong, and no property will be destroyed. Am I clear????” The principal grabbed Karma by his lapels and shook him.

  
“C-crystal!” Karma stuttered, watching as the principals brief moment of insanity was quickly re-hidden behind a mask of formality. He knew where Asano got it from at least.

“Good. Tell me the group you want to be present.”

  
In the end, Karma decided if he and Asano were going to suffer, his friends would too.

Rukiyo and Ren would go together, just so he could watch Ren squirm from across the table. Kabaya would go with Akari because why the fuck not. Koyoma and Seo would go on a triple date with Takebayashi (because he lived close and would hopefully fondle Asano- he was that obsessed and Karma thought it was be funny) because Karma was inherently self-destructive and he did like watching people be unhappy he decided. Apparently ‘all would be sorted’ on Friday, so all he had to do was tell the group who was going with who.

He left the room as clueless as Asano.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up next- chaos incarnate. The group has fun. Takebayashi's crush on Asano is pretty much canon at this point and I want some more Asano love.
> 
> Please give me feedback! Good, bad, anything you want to see, please tell me <3


	6. Love is in the Air

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> she arrives 1 month late with starbucks.
> 
> sorry for the wait, I have exams reasonably soon so updates will be slow :( Pray for me.
> 
> Anyways enjoy the crack!

The time had come.

The principal had put all the precautions in place- updated his life insurance, rewritten his will, he had even called his family to tell them that he loved them. It scared him slightly that when he explained the situation, they didn’t laugh, but solemnly said “We will miss you,” and ended the call.

He would accept death with open arms, it was his own fault after all.

“This was what happens when one associates themselves with Asanos” he reprimanded himself quietly. “Never again, you said after last time, and yet here you are, fucking yourself over.”

He made sure many different weapons were accessible in the toom, and then decided against it as they would just be used against him. He put poison in the food, and then thought no, you’ll be dead before that. He went as far to strap his anti-Asano vest on (a very expensive bullet and knife proof vest) but even then, he knew it was pointless. Death would come for him anyway, in the odd form of a vengeful father.

As he heard the thumping on his door, he suddenly had second thoughts. Hang on, why is he dying again??? Running away was always an option. Gakuhou might be both faster, stronger and more determined than him, but a men on their death-beds were known to do miraculous things. Just as he ran to the hallway, the door caved in with a splinter and Gakuhou’s form stood at the door. The man held nothing in his hands, which was a relief, but the relief dissipated when the principal realised that he must’ve kicked the door down, which he only did when he was feeling emotional.

From his experience, emotional Asanos were worse than angry Asanos.

Turning on his heel, he made it about 2 steps before a large weight his back, and with a thump he fell to the floor. Face down on the carpet, he contemplated his life choices for the 34th time this week (and counting). With a sigh, he decided facing Satan head on was more admirable than cowering, Asano felt no pity after all, and turned. He was not getting up, that would mean getting knocked down again and his legs would not stand for that (hah.).

That was how he ended up lying in his hallway, with the door in splinters and an emotionally charged Asano in his lap (yes fucking sitting on him, how old is he, 5???) wearing a bullet proof vest as he reassured Asano that no, he was not plotting against his son.

“So tell me, since when are my son and Akabane dating?” the principal said with a completely monotone voice, accompanied nicely with a psychotic smirk that didn’t faze the man on the floor in the slightest. He hadn’t reached laughter stage yet, that meant he was still stable enough for a conversation.

As he explained the nature of his well, plot is a harsh word Gakuhou, more like a scheme, yes I know that doesn’t sound much better, how about a plan? Ow, okay, point taken, he watched Gakuhou’s face change slightly. They sat (one on the other, who felt his poor thighs going numb, Gakuhou was far from light) for a few minutes in awkward silence.

Just as he was going for the knife strapped to his hip, Asano broke the silence.

“Am I a bad parent?”

Oh dear lord.

Gakuhou looked dangerously sad, he didn’t know how to deal with a sad Gakuhou, murderous, scheming, angry Gakuhou he could deal with, but not sad.

“He didn’t tell me he liked Akabane. Does he still not trust me??” Gakuhou said, admirably with no voice breaks.

“I’m trying to be better, I promise! The little shit just won’t listen to me. I tried being overly nice, but it felt forced and Gakushuu just looked at me like id gone crazy. I cant be mean again, I feel too bad now that I know he is a little weird for a kid his age. But I thought we were improving!!! The other week, he let me pat his head without getting into a defensive pose!” All said in a slightly distressed monotone.

“….The other week?” The principal weakly asked, feeling too fond for his liking.

“Yes, I-“ Asano proceeded to have an internal battle with himself for a few minutes, and the principal remembered the boy he was at school with, who dreamed of having a son.

“I am scared of him.” Asano said after a few moments. Be gone fondness.

“Your scared of your own son.” The principal said, before simultaneously being scoffed at by Asano and scoffing himself. Dumb question. The boy was an Asano after all.

“You know, Gakuhou, I think you need to be more straight with yourself,” the principal said, propping himself up on his elbows. “You aren’t scared of Gakushuu, you’re scared he will reject your affection."

Another uncomfortable silence stretched. The principal’s life definitely did not flash before his eyes when Gakuhou grabbed his shirt, looking slightly confused at the bullet-proof vest, but not commenting.

“Teach me how to be a better parent for my son.” He said with finality. It wasn’t a question.

The principal thanked God for allowing him another day of life, but then cursed him for getting him into this. With an alarming amount of affection in his heart, he agreed. He didn’t have a choice either way, and his life was still very much in danger, but he cared for the dysfunctional family. Wasn’t this why he had ~~hooked up~~ gotten Gakushuu and Akabane together? Ah, drat, he hated emotions. He could see why he and Asano were friends after all.

“Sorry to ruin the moment, but how do the kids say it again…. Is it a knife? Yeah, is it a knife in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” Asano said with a very smug look on his face, and no, he did not care for this man or his brat of a son, he hoped they rotted in hell.

“It’s a knife.” The principal said very flatly. He hated that Asano looked happier with this answer than the other.

He was suddenly pulled up, and had to focus his eyes as the disorientation left.

“You will keep me updated about Gakushuu and his boyfriend, you will make sure Akabane does not touch him in any way that I wouldn’t, no kissing, canoodling, fighting is allowed but no hands below the waist-“

“You’re a prude Gakuhou, the boys 16, he can have sex with his boyfriend-“

“AND he will be supervised at all times while with Akabane by someone I have previously approved of. Or else.”

The principal narrowed his eyes.

“Is that a threat?”

Gakuhou cast an eye around the house.

“You know, I always remembered the fondness you had for salmon. Would be a shame if someone happened to replace everything you owned with something salmon coloured,” Gakuhou said with a lilt to his voice, and goddammit the principal hated salmon, his wife hated salmon, of course Gakuhou was petty enough to do something this annoying-

“Fine, I accept, but I think if you want to be a good parent you should consider giving Gakushuu more freedom to explore himself.” The principal said, a smug smile on his face as he watched Gakuhuo regret ever having a child. On cue, his wife came into the room.

“Now, if you two boys are done fighting, I want to hear about Gakushuu and his boyfriend. Want to stay for dinner Gakuhou?” she said noooooo don’t invite him in-

“I’d love to!” He watched in despair as his wife and his best friend left the room together, her giving him advice about how to raise a confused, gay, violent son (as if she had any experience with their 3 straight girls) and died a little.

He tried not to think about how Gakuhuo didn’t know that Gakushuu and Karma weren’t really dating.

That was a problem for the future, or possibly Gakushuu depending on who was more unlucky.

Dusting himself off, he followed them into the kitchen.

* * *

Gakushuu was scared for tonight. More scared about this date than the first date, actually, not that he was scared, as Asanos don’t get scared.

Ren was wailing from where he lay on Gakushuu’s bed, Araki was throwing clothes everywhere and Koyoma and Seo were doing jumping jacks.

“What are you doing?” Gakushuu asked desperately.

“Jumping jacks,” replied Seo breathlessly. Koyoma looked very determined, so much so Asano was scared he would have a stroke.

“Ah.” Asano replied, like that sentence had solved everything.

“WHY DO YOU HAVE NO CLOTHES??? I TOLD YOU WE SHOULDVE GONE TO MY HOUSE!” Araki called form the cupboard, tossing his entire wardrobe around like he as some fashion expert all of a sudden.

“Gaku-sniff-Gakushuu, am I ugly?? Show me your chest, I cant be that sniff bad!!!” Ren cried from where he was now trying to paw Gakushuu’s shirt off. Gakushuu was too depressed to complain, and sat complacent as Ren desperately took his shirt off. Araki poked his head out of the cupboard and Koyoma and Seo stopped their jumping jacks to observe the shirt-taking-off, and they’re sure none of them are gay?

At the sight of Gakushuu’s slight abs, Ren began to wail again, just this time face down in Gakushuu’s lap. Araki looked far too interested and came up to touch them, and Koyoma and Seo began to jump triple as fast because we will look as good as the boss one day!

Gaksuhuu loved his friends. He really did, despite their weirdness, but Gakushuu wasn’t in the mood. He had a date to go on, and he was not looking forward to it.

He wondered what Karma was doing right now. He had actually had fun last time, in a weird way, as Karma was one of the very few people who understood him a base level. If there was one part of the date that he was looking forward too, it was their competition. He’d never had a sparring partner as talented as Karma. Maybe is wasn’t going to be so bad, he mused as he patted Ren’s head.

He hoped Karma was hoping to have as much fun as he hoped he was going to. It was probably one-sided though, wasn’t it?

* * *

Karma was not having fun.

He was, when Rukiyo had eaten his wasabi-flavoured crisps and died for 20 minutes, but now she was recovered and was currently having a wrestling match with Takebayashi about what Karma was going to wear for the date.

“Karma can’t wear that shirt! He has to exude top energy to assert his dominance over Asano!” Rukiyo cried, and for a straight girl she knew a lot of gay terms.

“What’s a top,” whispered Kabaya from where he was hiding under the bed.

“NO! Asano-kun may be a power bottom, but his favourite colour is blue and Karma should match it!” Takebayashi countered, sitting on poor Rukiyo who was tugging his hair. His glasses had gotten lost about 10 minutes ago.

“What is a power bottom,” whispered Kabaya.

“Search it up,” Karma said tiredly, watching Takebayashi rip one of his t-shirts. He was glad all of them had bought a change of clothes, because they were all looking rather dishevelled at the moment.

He absentmindedly listened to Kabaya tapping and Rukiyo screeching accompanied by Takebayashi’s body hitting the floor.

“Do I press the video link?” Kabaya’s voice came once again from under the bed.

“Sure, why not,” Karma said.

With the sound of graphic gay porn, Kabaya’s sobs, Rukiyo’s struggling as Takebayashi choked her for possession of a pair of trousers, Karma thought about Asano. He wondered what he was going to wear. He had looked really nice last time, annoyingly elegant and smart. He was irritatingly attractive, Karma thought (with not enough anger), and had a nice ass. He could see what Rukiyo was on about.

He’d look good in white, Karma mused, as Kabaya threw himself bodily against the door, successfully knocking himself out as the gay porn proudly continued from the phone.

He was looking forward to today, and kinda hoped Asano was too. It probably wasn’t true, but one can hope.

* * *

“Ren, seriously, I understand you can’t choose, but we need to be at the school in 45 minutes, and I live 20 minutes away,” Gakushuu complained exasperatedly.

“Don’t worry, I’ve already asked your driver to take us. Now, what about this one?” came the muffled voice of Ren from the cupboard, before he stepped out in yet another perfectly fine outfit.

“I liked the green top better, plus it goes with what I heard Rukiyo is wearing” said Araki from where he was attempting to do his hair, and Ren hummed thoughtfully before agreeing and stepping into the dressing room once more.

“How do you know that?” Gakushuu asked, bewildered.

“Heard it from my date!” Seo announced proudly, who was trying to do Koyoma’s hair, who looked entirely too distressed for someone going on a date with said hair-dresser.

“It has to look perfect!” Koyoma cried, again seemingly too invested in this for someone officially going with Seo and Takebayashi.

When Gakushuu pointed this out to him, he was not impressed.

“It may be a fake date, but it’s a date nonetheless! And as the charming men we are, we are taking it seriously!” announced Ren appearing once more from the dressing room wearing Gakushuu’s dark green sweater over a white shirt and dark blue jeans.

“You look nice, wait is that my watch?” Gakushuu asked. “That’s expensive!”

“I know,” Ren said, proudly donning Gakushuu’s Rolex as he forced Araki out of the hair-dressing stage of the process (yes they had made a process the fucking nerds, getting ready was not that hard dear lord) and into Gakushuu who apparently as the resident bisexual was doing makeup.

“You don’t even wear makeup!” Gakushuu had protested, seemingly unheard as he sat doing neutral looking makeup on Araki now.

“I don’t want it to look visible, but I want my skin to look as flawless as yours!” Araki stated, as Gakushuu put a light layer on concealer over his face. Gakushuu thanked God for having a mum who’s reaction to him coming out was to immediately buy loads of makeup for him and teach him how to use him. He’d then sat her down and had a talk about stereotypes, but he couldn’t deny that he looked fabulous with eyeliner on.

“Should I put eyeliner on?” he mused aloud to his friends, and when the chorus of yeahs came back he finished Araki's very light makeup consisting of concealer and a touch of mascara (apparently he would look weird next to Asano if he wore anything else) and put some eyeliner on. Gakushuu looked in the mirror whilst applying the eyeliner and stopped to watch his friends for a second.

They had all changed so much since middle school, embracing themselves more and becoming more open, he thought fondly as Ren and Koyoma squabbled over a hairbrush. He was lucky. Without them, he wouldn’t be who he was today.

“Hey, guys?” Asano said, more than a little choked up. They all turned to him questioningly.

“Thank you for accepting me,” He said, blushing a little. The affectionate smiles on their faces reminded him that he was loved.

“Aw, is boss being mushy? That’s the new boyfriend!” Seo teased, and was promptly assaulted by a blushing Gakushuu.

“Don’t fight, youll mess up your hair!!!!” cried Araki.

“We have to leave in 2 minutes!” called Ren, who was doing his hair at light speed.

“I hate all of you,” Gakushuu announced.

“No you don’t,” they all replied.

* * *

Since it was Karma’s date, he had planned it.

Well, he had tried, but the ‘school production team’ (aka the theatre group) had forcefully taken it out of his hands and told him to “leave it to them”. They had an actual budget, and Karma was not spending money on redecorating the school, so he had given them the go ahead. The school was scarily enthusiastic about his and Asano’s non-existent relationship, more than what Karma would’ve thought would’ve been relief at not being in danger anymore. Even the fangirls had calmed down, and seemed to accept that Asano wouldn’t love them. This was initially good for Karma, but now they swarmed him just as much, taking photos and trying to force romantic things out of him for Gakushuu- if they can’t be in a relationship with the boy, they’re at least going to be live vicariously through his actual relationship, one had gleefully told him. Karma just mourned the loss of privacy, in real life and online.

As he stood outside of the school, a small crowd of school kids assaulted him with cameras. Oh, yeah, they had a blog now apparently.

“Karma-kun! You’re trending on twitter!” One guy called.

“Karma-kun! Where’s Gakushuu-kun? Can we have a selfie?” another one called.

“Karma-kun! What colour underwear does Gakushuu-kun wear?”

The calls were varied in decency and pitch, and Karma soon found himself swarmed by a mob, fucking again. Takebayashi had lost his glasses again, and was trying to wade through the crowd. Rukiyo seemed to be scaling the wall, which seemed smart until she fell and was consumbed by the monster that was underage children. Kabaya was just gone, and Karma resigned himself to the wondering hands that were touching parts of his body he would rather not be touched thank you, before a strong hand grabbed his nape.

He nearly sobbed as Gerald heaved him into the building, with Takebayashi in his other hand. Rukiyo and Kabaya were already inside, and all 4 of them shared a group hug of safety.

“Have fun on your date Karma, I’m going to try and control the crowd for when Gakushuu-kun arrives. He’ll have a bigger reaction than you.” Gerald said grimly. Before Karma could be offended, Gerald handed him a box and waded out into the swarm of children. Karma’s mood soured as he looked down upon the box of Extra Strong Condoms! Designed Especially for Rough Anal Sex! It took all of his fading patience not to throw them at someone and just leave.

_Think of those points Karma._

_Think of victory._

_Think of how pissed Asano will be when you win._

Reinvigorated by the thought of Asano’s face in despair he placed the condoms in his bag and went to join his friends at the table. The design team hadn’t done badly, he thought as he sat down at the table. They’d gone for a theme both he and Asano would have enjoyed, Arabian Nights. Just enough class for Asano, comfort for Karma. They’d redecorated the gym for their date room. However, it was clear that most of the budget must have gone into lanterns, because the rugs were a wide range from the ones in the school office to someone’s Hello Kitty rug. The lanterns were pretty, and they had put up curtains around the table, which was low sitting so they all had to sit cross legged on the hello kitty rug. All in all, Karma was pretty content to take credit for this one, and he was confident that he looked cool and suave in his outfit. Maybe he’d out-dress Asano for once, huh?

As soon as the gymnasium doors opened, Karma cursed himself for thinking too soon, because lets be honest, it was hard to out-dress Asano at cool and suave.

He wore a white v-neck with a low neckline, showing off collar-bones and the expensive looking necklace he wore. He had slim-fitting, cuffed black suit pants and his long beige coat on. In fact, his whole group looked annoying good, and was Akari wearing makeup??

The boys sat down at their designated places, joining their dates. Well, all except Takebayashi, who at first sight of Asano nearly had a heart attack and thumped his head on the table. Karma was glad he had put him opposite Asano, not close enough for touching but enough loving eye contact to put Asano off guard. Karma was sitting between Asano and Kabaya (the normal one) who sat next to Araki his date. On Asano’s other side sat Rukiyo, then Ren, then Koyoma, Takebayashi and Seo all sandwiched into the last side.

“My darling honey-pot! Its so lovely to see you!” crooned Karma, standing up to help Gakushuu out of his coat for him. The group of teachers hiding behind the curtain (trying and failing to look hidden) nodded to each other.

“Sunshine, thank you for the help, but I don’t need it,” Asano said with a fake smile, gritting his teeth as Karma popped every button off of his coat.

The boys sat down again, and awkward small talk erupted from the group as ‘waiters’ (students) milled around and ‘took their orders’ (took their choice from a selection of 2 foods), when all of a sudden Asano sneezed. And sneezed again. The talk stopped as everyone watched oh-so-elegant Gakushuu sneeze 3 times in row.

Asano looked absolutely betrayed. Scandalized. And just like that, the ice was broken and everyone, even his friends, were laughing. “Don’t, sneeze, laugh!” Asano complained, but no one could take him seriously with his nose red and his face blotchy.

“It must be the pollen from the plants,” Ren explained, after he’d recovered from his laughing fit. The school had placed some tasteful looking potted plants around their table, that didn’t really go with the look but added a touch of greenery.

“Aw, strong student council president bought down by some pollen,” giggled Rukiyo, and everyone was laughing once more.

“If it makes you happier to know, his dad is also allergic to pollen. Imagine the principal sneezing now,” Seo said, sending everyone into peals of giggles once more.

“What is it, mock the Asanos day?” Gakushuu grumbled, pouting a little.

Karma caught the glint in Rukiyo’s eye before she opened her mouth.

“C’mon Karma! Your boyfriend is sad and sick! Give him a kiss to make him feel better,” the evil witch said.

Ren looked absolutely delighted, and Karma regretted putting them together all of a sudden.

“Kiss! Kiss!”chanted the rest of the table (except Takebayashi who was death glaring him). Even the waiters joined in.

Karma hazarded a look at Gakushuu only to see he was flushed. Their eyes met and Karma had not signed up for this. He couldn’t deny that Asano was attractive, with long lashes and pouty lips. The blush on his cheeks was hot, and all Karma could think of was kissing him until that blush covered his entire neckline.

Glancing to make sure the teachers were watching, Karma carefully cupped Asanos jaw with one hand before leaning over and pressing his lips to Gakushuu’s cheek, the skin heated beneath his mouth.

At the booing of the table, Karma rolled his eyes, and making sure not to look Gakushuu in the eye brought their lips together. Huh, his lips are soft, thought Karma, as he moved his mouth against Gakushuu’s, the cheers of the table distant in the background. Forcing himself to pull away, he brought his mouth to Gakushuu’s ear.

“Not bad, nerd,” he whispered in his ears and pretended to ignore Gakushuu’s growl as he turned back to the table.

* * *

A few hours later, they had finished their food, and Gakushuu could admit that he had had a good time. He had turned the tables on the, the kiss by giving Karma a pair of earrings to match his necklace. He looked fondly over the people around the table. God he was getting soft. Even Karma looked content with the company. It was all going great until Takebayashi stood up too fast to help Asano into his coat, knocking a waiter into a lantern. They all watched in horror as it teetered and fell onto the Hello Kitty rug, instantly setting it on fire.

“Every man for themselves!” cried Koyoma. Takebayashi rushed to help Gakushuu, tripping Seo in the process who latched onto Kabayas leg, bringing the 3 of them into a pile by the door. Fighting the body next to him for access through the door, eventually Karma and Gakushuu got put of the building, both panting and pumped with adrenaline. Doing one last check for teachers, all of whom had apparently run out of the main entrance, Gakushuu approached Karma.

“Baby, darling, cupcake, this is for kissing me!” Gakushuu snarled as he swung his fist, connecting it with Karmas face, sending him stumbling.

Karma spent one moment looking at Asano like he was an utter moron before his look turned into something more feral, as he wiped his bleeding nose on his shirt.

“Shit’s burning,” Gakushuu grinned, punctuated with a blasé brushing at his shoulder to remove the flaming frond that had collapsed there and was slowly eating its way through his shirt. “I figured that was our cue that we are allowed to fight each other again.”

“Actually, this does seem like the perfect opportunity to call it a night.” Karmas knife clicked open quietly at his side, reflected flames dancing along its honed edge. It was, Gakushuu could admit around the heady sensation of adrenaline, a beautiful sight mm as they launched themselves at each other.

* * *

At present an eerie silence filled the area, only punctuated by the periodic splintering of a collapsing rafter or the creak of support beams developing stress fractures. It had a nice, domestic, post-apocalyptic feel in Karmas humble opinion.

He had a prime vantage point of the destruction of his school building from where he lay in the middle of a decimated alley, though the burning landscape was really just a backdrop for the main image. His main focus was contemplating if voluntary movement was strictly necessary for the remainder of his adult life. This oddly Zen outlook was a direct result of four straight hours of fighting with Asano- a personal record that was simultaneously the most invigorating and most awful decision of his life (if his sprained everything was any indication).

Generally, being rendered immobile would be a point of considerable concern, but Gakushuu was thankfully in a similarly useless heap nearby. Aside from the disconcerting chuckles he kept shooting off, the blond appeared pretty content to remain inanimate.

The third and final inhabitant of the alley had been forced back to the scene by his “girlfriend” and her demands that he break up the fight. Ren had failed spectacularly at this, when only twenty minutes into the skirmish that looked like a cross between Armageddon and a circus performance, he managed to get caught under a distorted chunk of rebar. As it stood, he appeared to be a component of a particularly insightful and provocative piece of modern art.

“You personify everything I hate,” Gakushuu sighed happily towards the pile that Karma lay in, followed by a happy giggle.

“Your face is enough to send me into blind rage,” Karma laughed back, sending both of them into giggles.

“I can’t feel my legs” contributed Ren woefully.

“I dream of carving you into pieces ,” Karma purred.

“I dream of tearing off each of your appendages,” was Gakushuu’s response

“I am definitely cataloging some worrying nerve deficits,” Ren continued to mutter in the background.

“Best Date Ever, ”Gakushuu said, and Karma would agree had he been on a date before this.

“I have a proposition- a an armistice in the name of a common goal,” Karma said as he turned towards Gakushuu.

“You two confess love in weird ways,” Ren added helpfully.

He saw Gakushuu smile, and they made eye contact.

“Exactly what I was thinking Akabane, Great minds do think alike.”

“You guys are so odd,” Ren added before passing out, as the pair smiled at each other in the flames of the school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of my fav headcanons is that Karma has had tons of sexual experience but has never been in a relationship, whereas Gakushuu has been in tons of relationships and has loads of romantic experience but is a fat virgin. 
> 
> I hope this headcanon came through, there will be more of this thoughout.
> 
> Please comment your thoughts!


	7. Tension

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M BACK GUYS, GALS AND NON-BINARY PALS!
> 
> How's isolation treating you? 
> 
> Sorry I haven't been able to update, I haven't had much motivation to write at the moment.
> 
> Anyways, enjoy the chapter!

Something was going on.

Gakuhou knew his son very well, despite what people claimed. And something was definitely going on.

Why is that brat smiling, Gakuhou thought, narrowing his eyes. I hope he’s not suffering brain trauma. If he is, Akabane WILL lose his kneecaps, or an arm maybe he should take his son to the hospital? Maybe a therapist?

What instead came out was, “You look like a psychopath son. I thought I raised you to hide it better.”

Communication was coming along great.

They were sitting in their kitchen, Asano Snr bandaging Asano Jnr’s burn wounds from the flaming mess that he had left of the school’s gym. He was covered in a wide range of cuts and bruises from Akabane’s fists and knives. Gakushuu smugly claimed that Karma looked worse than him. Gakuhou dimly thought about how badly he must have fucked up to raise a son like this. But then again, he loved this version of his son- despite the sociopathic, masochistic control-freak that he was. So really, he didn’t know what the principal was on about. He thought Gakushuu had turned out pretty great.

Gakushuu smirked at him.

“Well if I’m a psychopath what does that make you? You did raise me after all.”

Gakuhuo took it back. His son was a brat.

He told him that.

“Brat,” he said with too much affection. He made sure to tug Gakushuu’s bandage extra tight, and then definitely didn’t feel bad when his son hissed and promptly loosened them.

There was an awkward silence between the two of them.

“Yknow I can do this on my own right?” Gakushuu said softly. “I’ve had more than enough practice.”

Even though Gakuhou knew it was mostly from the numerous first aid courses Gakushuu had mastered, it still made him flinch.

“I want to help,” he said stubbornly, and continued his aggressive-but-tender medical care, and Gakushuu stopped squirming. After a few minutes he noticed a different smile was on his son’s face. Rather than the scheming plotting smile that sent his parental fears into overdrive, it was a loving one.

They were both too emotionally stunted to say it, but in time Gakuhou hoped to tell his son that he loved him.

The two Asanos made eye-contact before dissolving into a fit of giggles.

“Ewww, you’re so gross dad,” Gakushuu laughed, “since when did you go sappy?”

“Says the one smiling like a cherub.” Gakuhou retorted.

They both giggled again. What was his household coming to.

When he had finished, he didn’t ask his son if he was okay. He merely held his hand out for Gakushuu to take. His brat yawned before taking it to help himself up.

“We are having takeout tonight!” the smaller Asano announced.

“No we aren’t,” the older Asano countered.

“Well, its too late, I ordered it before I came back,” Gakushuu said, that smug smile back on his lips.

Gakuhuo set a mental reminder to find out whatever his son was plotting before it went really wrong. His parental instincts had already been on a rollercoaster tonight, that could wait for another day when he wasn’t about to eat takeout with his son.

“You’re paying,” Gakuhuo said, and dodged the attempt Gakushuu made at swiping his wallet.

When the takeout came 5 minutes later, he pretended that he hadn’t noticed Gakushuu using the family cash store, and Gakushuu pretended not to know that he knew Gakuhuo would replenish it later.

Ah, emotions, Gakuhuo thought as they sat down to eat Chinese. It’s nice to feel you again.

And, even as he adamantly told Gakushuu that he was bigger and needed more sustenance, he let Gakushuu have the biggest helpings, IGNORING the comment his devilish son made about ‘more exertion’ with a wink. Brat, Gakuhou thought, not so affectionately this time, and tried very hard to banish thoughts of Akabane and his son from his mind at his previously pure dinner. He knew his son only had this amount of gall with him, and partly hated partly respected it.

He ignored Gakushuu’s whines and took the last helping of noodles. He needed the extra energy to deal with his wreck of a son.

* * *

School the next morning was a fun affair.

And by fun, Ren thought, he meant post-apocalyptic fun that consisted of Akabane prancing through the ashes of the ex-sports hall fun. So not fun. At all.

He had spent the night in hospital and despite claiming insanity through blood-loss they told him to go to school the next day. He had tried really, really hard to plead craziness, even going as far as to cry at the nurse’s feet (which may he been partly from stress, but semantics). She hadn’t believed him and off to school he was sent.

There had been a whole school assembly where the principal announced that a generous, unknown benefactor had donated money to have the hall rebuilt (which translated to its either Gakuhou or his own money), but for the safety of the students it would be done when the ‘threat’ that had burnt it in the first place had been eliminated.

“Fuck Asano! He’s stubborn isn’t he?” He said as he turned to his best friend, who admittedly did looked a little shocked by the fact that the principal was still not giving up despite them having burnt down not just a school hall but a restaurant.

“What are you going to do about it?” Ren asked Gakushuu, knowing that his intelligent friend would already have a plan. He knew that he and Asano had only just gotten closer in the past two years after their humiliation in middle school. In some ways he had always thanked Akabane for that, it meant they could all properly connect as a group for the first time.

After a few minutes, he panicked, “Asano, you do have a plan, right?”

Gakushuu scoffed, and Ren breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m going to tell you my plan Ren, but you have to promise not to tell the others until I say,” and wow that made Ren feel special.

Ahh Asano trusted him!! Probably too eagerly he turned his head and let Asano tell him the plan that he and Akabane had apparently come up with after Ren had blacked out after the fire (which he was very mad about, Asano and Akabane looked as perfect as they always did and he was still walking with a limp).

After he had heard the idea, he decided he wanted to go back to the hospital. The poor principal was in for a ride.

He stared dumbly at his best friend who looked far too smug for someone plotting what would surely be the demise of their principal (Gakushuu’s god-father, he thought, and shuddered. Everyday he thanked God for not having been born an Asano). The plan had just enough sadistic violence to have had Akabane’s seal of approval, but enough proper plotting and behind the scenes work that had Asano’s name planted on the plan.

Which unfortunately involved Ren.

When he told this to Gakushuu, he laughed, before smiling at Ren and thanked him for helping.

Bitch, Ren said back. They both knew he was going to help anyway, but he could at least pretend otherwise.

“Wait. Doesn’t this plan involve, like a lot of physical affection with Akabane? That’s not great for you,” Ren said scrunching his nose at the image of his best friend and that hooligan being touchy-touchy. It seemed Asano shared this sentiment at his little frown.

“Well, some things can’t be helped. My sanity will be a noble sacrifice for this plan to go ahead.”

Ren nodded and turned back to the poor principal who had basically said that he was going to be upping his dating efforts- “the outcome will be worth the pain and sorrow we will put in now!” which vibed with Ren. He felt sorrowful.

He chuckled when he realised what this all really was. A weird piss match between the school’s powerhouses in their quest for dominance. Except now apparently Asano and Akabane had temporarily joined forces. He just really hoped that Asano Snr didn’t get involved. That surely would be the end of whichever side he opposed.

Well, Ren thought as the school around him tittered excitedly at the possibility of seeing Asano and Akabane be lovey-dovey in school, guess it’s time to choose a side. He looked at his best friend, thought about his plan and the determined look on his face. The one thing that he had learnt in life, was never get between an Asano and his pride. And apparently Gakushuu’s pride was on the line in this piss-show. So he’d side with him. Not like he’d have no other choice really, or that he would follow his best friend to the ends of the earth, and knew for a fact that their whole group would no matter how stupid this plan was.

Nothing like that at all.

* * *

Karma was having a great day. He was walking to meet Asano to discuss the first stage of the plan, the principal was not backing down, and he could now piss off multiple people without any repercussions. As he approached the door to the student council room, he saw Asano down the hallway. Holding the door open with a smile, he greeted Asano with a “mademoiselle” that had the nearby students looking over at them. He gave them a winning smile. Asano simply rolled his eyes and stepped inside before they could get harassed by the student body. Once the door was locked and the room quiet, Karma grinned at Asano.

“He’s not giving in! And I thought that burning down the gym would be enough to make him cave,” Karma laughed. “Well, it means that our plan can go forward!”

Asano smiled. “I told you he wouldn’t, he’s too stubborn. Plus, the two of us have done less damage since this started due to distractions, even though we have burnt down a building.”

“Says a lot,” Karma chuckled. Asano laughed with him.

“So, Asano, what’s next? We confirm it in the meeting with him, but then what?” Karma asked.

“Well, first, if we are to sell this, you’re gonna have to call me Gakushuu. Then, we start on the publicity. Ren is onboard, but if we really want to get this going we are going to need Araki.”

Karma sat in thought for a few seconds. “Why call you Gakushuu when I can call you Shuu? Pisses you off and its endearing too,” he smirked. Gakushuu’s eyebrow twitched and he rolled his eyes again.

“But anyways, I can get Rukiyo and Kabaya to spread it around. At the end of the day, some public stunts will do enough. Apparently the school population is stupider than I thought,” Karma added.

Gakushuu scoffed.

“Annoying but true. Shall I start planning some spectacles?”

“Nah, even if you do I won’t follow them.” Karma said, dodging Gakushuu’s elbow and running around a table to safety. “Let’s just improvise Shuu, go by the rule the more violent the better! You’re good at that!” With an oof, Karma accepted the second elbow to the chest to prove his point.

“I have 3 rules- nothing that disrupts studying, class is okay since I know the material, nothing that effects my extra-curriculars and no kissing. You can add any 3 rules to this list too,” Gakushuu said firmly.

Karma pouted, “Aw, no kissing? Too scared after last time? Improvement, which is very much needed for you, comes only with practice Shuu!” The kick to his ankles was expected and avoided, but the punch to the stomach was not and Karma doubled over in pain.

“Okay okay, yeesh, calm it honey-cakes. I only have one rule, and that’s no rumours.”

Gakushuu raised am eyebrow at him, taunting that “shameless Karma Akabane’s reputation does matter to him after all”.

“Well, would you like me spreading rumours about how good you are in bed sweet-cheeks?” Karma said dryly, and snorted at Gakushuu’s red face.

“No, I guess not cupcake,” Asano said sarcastically. He looked at his watch and sighed.

“Class is about to start, we should go.” Gakushuu said curtly. He struggled with an inner turmoil for a few moments before reluctantly saying, “want to walk there together?”

Karma unlocked the door and they stepped out, pretending not to see the crowd of kids outside.

Karma suddenly felt something warm against his hand, and he looked up to see a blushing Gakushuu holding out his hand. The group of students all got out their phones and secretly tried to take photos (only they had the subtly of rhinos. Taking Gakushuu’s hand, the pair walked to class followed by the sound of shutters going off.

“I like the blushing, it’s a nice touch,” Karma complimented, surprisingly genuine.

Gakushuu smirked. “Thank you, its great for manipulation. Its gotten me free tickets many times.”

Laughing, Karma queried, “Hah, and you’re sure I’m the delinquent here? Seems awful trickster of you, oh mighty upholder of all rules.”

As they arrived to class, they saw the funny look their classmates gave them, and Gakushuu simply blew Karma a kiss in return. Their math teacher buried his face in his hands, already dreading the response of the teachers as well as the student body. He just hoped it wouldn’t happen in his class.

Meanwhile, Ren saw the two of them laughing and holding hands and thought back to what Rukiyo had said to him. Maybe she and the principal aren’t as mad as they had originally thought. He should get the rest of the group's opinion too.

* * *

The plan was simple. Gakushuu and Karma would pretend to date properly, fooling the student body and the teachers but not the principal. Meanwhile they would cause as much havoc and damage to the school as possible. It allowed the two of them to blow off steam whilst annoying the principal. But they were doing what he wanted weren’t they?

Araki would run publicity, monitoring blogs and social media. Koyoma would source any ~~incendiary~~ props they might need (which Karma especially was very happy about). Kabaya and Seo would monitor the teachers . That left Ren and Rukiyo to do word of mouth, and to hype up the crowds. Asano personally felt the plan was genius (of course it was, he had come up with it himself) but he could tell by the blank faces Seo, Koyoma and Araki were giving him that not everyone agreed. Rukiyo looked suspiciously happy and Kabaya looked like he had swallowed some acid.

“Isn’t this going slightly too far? The principal is your god-dad after all Asano, surely you don’t want his death on your hands?” Seo asked.

Asano gravelly shook his head. “He is technically an Asano, and there is no such thing as too far with an Asano. If we want him to give up then this is what we must do.”

“Well, in that case, aren’t you just doing what he wants anyway?” Koyoma queried.

Karma piped in.

“Yeah, but he’s a stubborn bastard. If we want him to stop we have to drive him into a corner. That way he has no cards to play. If he forces us to date then we can’t destroy things as easily, as he gas the threat of dates.”

Araki looked at Koyoma and Seo and thought, right, because destroying things is the ultimate goal here. Ren just looked very done and Kabaya looked like he was going to be sick. Rukiyo still looked too happy.

Not one to disagree with either Karma or Gakushuu, Araki sighed and accepted the tasks that they had been set. All in all, there wasn’t much to do, expect carefully place some rumours, monitor the damage and watch it all unfold. Akabane and Asano were doing most of the work anyway, he thought to himself. Plus, he would hold all of the information about the two of them online. That guaranteed popularity was going to be nice.

Koyoma was happy with his jobs. He liked making things go boom, but clearing up was no fun. This way he could make explosives and have no repercussions!!! He was just scared if handing Akabane the bomb. Asano he trusted explicitly, but he had once seen Karma chase two geese with a hand grenade and had never been the same since. But, he reasoned, at least this way the explosives were monitored and reasonably safe compared to Karma’s personal stash. Plus, he could try out some new experiments. He agreed to the tasks as well.

Seo was not so happy. As much as he preferred Kabaya to the excitable girl and the murderous delinquent (which was not saying much) he didn’t know him that well, and he really didn’t want to be the first line of defence between the principal’s wrath and Akabane. Asano he would willingly help, but he still wasn’t over yesterday’s lunch where Karma had stolen the last chocolate bar in the vending machine. Well, it was a chance to see Akabane potentially on fire, and it helped the boss. Plus, he didn’t want to be the only one to not agree, so he agreed.

Ren was already onboard, Rukiyo instantly agreed (there was definitely something going in with her) and with great reluctance and an elbow from Rukiyo Kabaya was onboard too. Asano tried very hard to look cool, but internally was very happy that everyone had agreed. Despite what people believed, he loved his friends and they had all become infinitely closer since middle school. He looked over at the red-headed prick he was supposed to be dating and thought about the anarchy they were going to commit. He did love having an equal.

* * *

The principal had had a rough few days. Maybe even a rough week. But, he counted his blessings. Sure, the school builing had burnt down. But, it was being rebuilt, completely paid for by Gakuhou on the promise of letting him put up cameras to ‘check on his son’s well-being’. Sure, the two boys had burnt down a restaurant, but there had been no proof that it was them. Okay, granted the restaurant was trying to sue him, but that wouldn’t happen right? He decided he would avoid that by bribing Gakuhou with cute photos of Gakushuu that some of the obsessed children had taken of him. No one had ever survived a one-on-one legal discussion with an Asano after all. He knew that after he had tried to blackmail Gakuhou into buying him lunch ONCE back in university. He still had nightmares to this day.

So, he looked at the bright side! He had nothing to be stressed over! Not one thing!!! This was all going to blow over, like his dead body after all of this-

“Principal, please get up off of the floor. Your meeting with Asano and Akabane starts in two minutes.” His secretary looked very unimpressed from her desk. She had seen this man go through every stage of grief at least 5 times. Unfortunately for the boys about to walk in, it must have advanced into a new stage called insanity over the past few hours. He had been throwing darts at a piece of paper named ‘stubborn dumb gay boys’ earlier so that must have been anger, she reasoned.

“Sorry, sorry, send them in when they get here,” the principal said as he peeled himself off of the floor. When his secretary glanced over she tried not to flinch. He had a very scary habit of being able to go from sobbing into his tea with bags and red-rimmed eyes to a put-together man in less than 30 seconds.

The principal sat at his desk and composed himself. He would win this war. Damage control was already being monitored. He was ready for ALL outcomes. Arson, illegal weaponry, blackmail, all were accounted for. The boys wouldn’t worm themselves out of this one!!!

He visibly felt his soul leave his body when his door opened to show devil 1 and devil 2 holding hands and giggling like some teenage romance. Some part of his brain was rejoicing at his victory, that yes! They had finally gotten together! But he knew Gakushuu better than that and he could SEE Karma’s nails digging into Gakushuu’s wrist. But they sat down in front of him looking like the cares of the world were off of their shoulders and the principal suddenly remembered why he was doing this in the first place. He was still suspicious but he knew they were compatible goddamnit!!!

“Can I gloat now?” is what he said because despite the proud mother mindset he was in, being a petty shit was still a priority. These boys had caused him enough pain already, he had earnt the right.

Gakushuu’s face immediately soured, and Karma leant over and wrapped his arms around his shoulders.

“Don’t let him get to you babe, he’s just annoying you,” he crooned, and the principal could practically feel Asano tense up from here. To be fair, any sane person would too if a teenage pyromaniac started whispering in their ear.

Gakushuu’s body language changed, and that sent alarm bells ringing in the principal’s mind. Something must be fake for Asano to relax around Karma. Even if they were ‘dating’ something was definitely up. Asano didn't even relax around his father (granted their was merit to that).

He narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t going to take the bait.

“So, I take it you two are okay to continue with the enforced dates then, or do you have any objections?”

* * *

“He took the bait!” Karma cheered as they were finally released from the office where their friends were waiting for them. Gakushuu smiled and they high-fived.

“You were very convincing Karma, but next time maybe avoid nearly giving everything away by laughing mid-talk,” Gakushuu smirked, but it wasn’t smug enough to be true.

Karma grinned and pushed Gakushuu’s shoulder.

“Hah? Coming from the one who tensed every time I touched him!”

They both laughed until they heard a cough.

Seo raised an eyebrow, looking unimpressed. “So?”

Rukiyo and Koyoma (her new partner in crime after Ren had declared he was not getting involved in Karma’s love life even if it involved Gakushuu and who had been cornered by her after the meeting that morning) were practically bouncing. Karma flushed a bit and stepped away from Asano, who simply scoffed.

“Perfectly of course, he took the bait that something was up and has resumed the dates, but has just enough suspicion that we are actually dating to let his guard down.” The strawberry-blond announced.

Just as the words had left his mouth, Araki and Kabaya came sprinting down the hallway and collapsed at Gakushuu’s feet.

“Asano, huff, god, the, fuck I’m tired, students, bro I’m so out of shape… huff, lunch, dad,” Araki magnaged to choke out around gasps. Kabaya (the poor soul) was being kicked by Rukiyo as he had to “get the fuck up I have something to tell you” but it seemed he was out cold.

Asano waited patiently for his friend to catch his breath, and when Araki straightened up he asked him again.

“Araki. Please for the love of god spit it out.”

“Hah, sorry dude. I was just going to say that there’s a queue of students waiting to see you and Karma walk in together in the lunch hall.”

“What!?” the people present chorused. Even Rukiyo stopped her kicking to turn in shock.

Araki looked very smug.

“Well, you see, me and Kabaya here have been doing some work. You and Akabane aren’t the only ones who have drama with the principal,” he said, and Kabaya put a weak thumbs up (but from Karma’s angle it looked more like a thumbs down) from the floor in agreement.

“Let me show you later Asano, but first go to the lunch hall and do something romantic. Put some propaganda out there,” Araki said.

Karma and Gakushuu made eye contact for a few seconds and smirked.

“Right Gakushuu, ready to blow off some steam?” Karma said as he launched down the hallway.

He heard Gakushuu sigh before hearing fast-paced running on the floor beneath him

Feeling Gakushuu hot on his heels he heard him say, “Just as we discussed, right Karma?”

He heard his laugh bounce off the hallways as he vaulted over a student.

“Yeah yeah, just keep up second-place!”

The familiar thrill of a chase raced (hah.) through Karma’s veins and he distantly heard Gakushuu swear as he bumped into a student. As he reached the lunch hall, Gakushuu close behind him, he flung open the doors and prepared to do what he did best- piss people off.

As soon as the two boys were around the corner, Rukiyo dragged Kabaya off of the floor and squealed to him.

“Karma definitely has feelings!!! I can see it!” she called. Kabaya looked extremely distressed but decided that he didn’t want a peaceful lunchtime and questioned it.

“I don’t think Karma has realised his feelings yet though, if he has any to begin with” he said confused.

Koyoma took this chance to jump in.

“That’s why we have to work extra hard! As soon as Asano likes Karma back then he will know, and then confess. We just need to get them both to realise!!!” he said happily.

The two started discussing plans that sounded suspiciously like Koyoma trying to relate this to chemical equations and Rukiyo trying to actually matchmack, dragging Kabaya like a ragdoll across the floor with them.

“Erm, what’s going on?” Seo asked.

Ren shook his head tiredly.

“Just leave it to them, if they’re right they can handle it, if they’re wrong I am not getting involved in the fallout,” he said, sounding oddly depressed.

Araki patted his shoulder awkwardly, not sure what he was cheering him up for and proceeded to show them what he had done.

Their odd moment of bonding (?) was ruined by a few girls running with cameras down the hall as well as loud shouting from outside, and they looked out of the window to see Karma covered in curry trying to ‘give’ (aka beat) Gakushuu a bunch of flowers from the school lawn. Roots and all.

The massive crowd that it had drawn, of not just people from their year group either, didn’t seem to mind however, and they could hear cries of “So romantic!” “True love!” from where they stood.

The three boys grimaced at the sight of their friend being knocked from the outside bench into thw crowds waiting arms, and was practically flung into Karma’s by a boy from the year above them. Shoving his curry shirt all over Gakushuu’s face as Karma dramatically embraced him, Karma somehow managed to dodge the ‘affectionate’ punch that Gakushuu swung at him.

“If I ever get a girlfriend, I really hope I don’t flirt like that with her,” Seo said, looking at the odd display.

“Agreed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idea- Koyoma as the fan-girl of the group. 
> 
> Idea 2- Karma falling for Gakushuu but not knowing and Gakushuu falling becuase Karma is extra sweet but knowing and not showing.
> 
> Side note, the principal doesn't have a name??? Do you guys think I should name him or not?
> 
> As always, comments and feedback are appreciated <3


	8. Getting There

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo I'm back guys, sorry for the long wait. I hope a slightly longer chapter can make up for it!
> 
> I'm actually ending up being quite busy in isolation (who knew), but I'll try and update more regularly. Now that I have a second Karashuu fic on the go, updates may be a little slower! I also have lots of one shot ideas, which I might be writing out. I promise that I'll try to update fast though!
> 
> Also, I'm sorry if the spacing looks weird, my laptop decided to not work as I was paragraphing everything.
> 
> For the chat part of this chapter, just in case it isn't obvious:  
> AsaNO/Math- Gakushuu  
> NowYouSeoMe/English- Seo  
> SlutForPoetry/Japenese- Ren  
> PhotoBomb/SocialStudies- Araki  
> PlantLover/Science- Koyama  
> Satan/BetterMath- Karma
> 
> I named them based on the subjects that they excelled in, as well as self indulgent nicknames. Really, this whole chapter was self indulgent. I realised that this fic was lacking a lot of Karma bonding with the Virtuosos and Gakushuu suffering so here, have some weirdly specific situations I've imagined before shoved in one chapter!
> 
> As always, enjoy! Hope its not OOC but what can you do.

For one day, they let the principal gloat, making sure no fights broke out. Apparently according to Karma, things would get a lot more fun later on if the principal believed that they would stop fighting due to their apparent love. 

For three days, minimal damage took place. The two boys flirted badly and publically, held hands, passed notes: everything expected of two lovers, whilst only breaking one window. The principal smugly noted the lack of damage every assembly, gradually becoming less and less suspicious of the act the two boys had curated.

Personally, Kabaya wasn’t really sure how they pulled it off. Their brand of flirting consisted of Gakushuu lobbing Karma’s favourite drink at Karma’s head with the force of a bowling ball and Karma ‘treating’ Gakushuu to lunch by spilling it down his school shirt. Ren had apparently overheard Saski-sensei talking to the staff about ‘how they flirted reflected their personalities, and how sweet it was that there was someone else out there for everyone, even raucous little men like them’. While the staff were dubious, the oddly intimate violence that had filled the past few years had reflected onto the events that were happening now.

However, if it really came down to it, what sold it wasn’t the new hand handling, or awful nicknames, it was how little difference to their routines there was. Before all of this had even started, there had been chemistry and tension that everyone except the two involved could see. They both had a weird obsession with beating each other, and there was only so many times that pinning the other to a wall could be labelled as fighting before the homoerotic subtext became far too clear.

Being honest with himself, Kabaya couldn’t really think of anyone else better suited for Karma than Asano. Both were sociopathic, aggressive, logic-driven boys who manipulated and schemed their way through life. They were good-looking, competitive people who got bored easily and sought control, and there was no way that there was a vat of people like them sitting around. 

Realistically, if they could get past that violent competitiveness that they emitted around each other, Kabaya thought, they might actually stand a chance of getting together. But, knowing at least one of the pair quite well, Kabaya knew that there wasn’t much hope of that happening any time soon. Rukiyo and Koyama, the unlikely pair that they were, had taken it upon themselves to set the two up for real, but Kabaya had a hunch that if anything were to happen between them it would have to come from purely them. All of this meddling, from the principals, to the teachers and even the students was not going to end well. At least it was driving them closer, he thought mournfully. 

If it hadn’t been for Araki, nothing would have gone as planned. Initially the small internet following they had gathered had blown up upon the news of the dating. Araki had simply stirred the pot a bit, a few photos, a few rumours, some blogs, and suddenly they had thousands of people interested in their relationship. And the school was the epicentre. It wasn’t every day that a publically gay couple showed up in Japanese youth, let alone two of the most sought after, charismatic boys of their age group. Realistically, this had caused an initial stir in the adults following them, but apparently kids didn’t care nearly as much about things like that as adults did. If anything, the fact that they were both boys was unusual enough to have brought a bigger audience to their relationship than if they were a heterosexual couple. Kabaya sighed. All of this was too much for him. He loved Karma dearly, but he just wasn’t cut out for this kind of plotting. He was pretty content to support from the side-lines. He shuddered at the mere thought of having to hold hands with Karma, let alone the student council president. He sent prayers up to a god that clearly wasn’t listening to protect him from the pummelling that he was sure to receive if this went wrong.

* * *

One of the first things that became apparent about Karma was that even though he fought a lot, threw the first punch a lot, stirred up trouble, it was never without a reason, Gakushuu thought to himself. 

What had also become apparent since joining high school was that the older students especially were still impacted by his father’s old school schemes. Bullying and teasing the students in lower classes was still a very regular thing, and while Gakushuu hated that his father’s stupid school system was still having an effect now, he hadn’t done much about it. He wasn’t one to cause direct conflict, he preferred to control from behind the scenes, run the show without having to move a muscle. Since getting onto the student council, he had planned to tackle it, but Karma, exams, funding and events had completely swamped his time. But while he had sat and waited until he had the ‘power’ to deal with the issues, Karma had done stuff. With his past middle school record, and his very public fights against Gakushuu, he had created a violent name for himself. So, if he saw any bullying, he dealt with it ‘personally’. Gakushuu had always begrudgingly admired that about him, and had always felt a stinging sense of guilt that he had never personally acted against the bullying. 

So, that was what they had planned to do under the smoky sky of their burning sports-hall. Finally cut all of the remaining ties that his father had left behind. Karma would do the fighting, and Gakushuu would do all of the planning and damage control. 

Gakushuu would never admit it, but it was his final way of apologising to the Class of 3-E. Karma would never say anything either, but Gakushuu knew he was grateful, if anything, for the ability to do good with his fists without the risk of expulsion hanging over his head. 

So, the two boys, after a few days, began to utilize their combined powers, under the guise of their awkward flirting. Since Karma had already been picking fights prior to the situation, it wasn’t out of the ordinary, but what was new was the oddly romantic centre to the fights. The public had drunken it up like liquor over the past week that they had been setting their plan into motion.

“Oh Shuuey my snugglemonster! My heart yearns *punch* to be near you!” Karma announced from the courtyard below, looking up at Gakushuu who overlooked from the second-story window. The poor bully who was trapped in a headlock looked mildly disturbed that the boy who had given him multiple bruises was serenading his lover at the same time.

“Kar-Kar, my beloved, we must reunite soon! I cannot bear to be apart!” Gakushuu ‘swooned’, dramatically hanging out of the window with his hand over his forehead (and his father had claimed that he would never have a career in acting).

“I will bring you offerings my little burrito! Will you be an offering to my sweetheart?” Karma asked the petrified second-year who was shaking in fear.

“N-no?”

“He said yes!” Karma announced to the crowd that had amassed to film the event. They broke out in cheers, and Karma hoisted the boy above his head. 

“Next time you decide to pick on someone, I won’t let Gakushuu deal with you. You’ll think he’s an angel in comparison to what I want to do to you.” Karma whispered into the boy’s ear. If it was possible, he paled even more. 

“Take the offering to my dearest Prince!” Karma cried, and the crowd surged forward, taking the bully over their shoulders and crowd surfing him up to the second floor. His scared screams were drowned out by the loud cheers of the crowd.

Gakushuu sighed, before moving away from the window to await the poor boy being carted unceremoniously to where he was. This was the 3rd one today, 7th overall. They were only just over a well They were only just over a week into the plan. His honey-muffin liked letting him deal with the chaos, under the guise of sending gifts, or people to help with Gakushuu’s work, even as far as to order one girl who had been stealing lunch money to give Asano all of the money she had stolen into his lap. He had felt very regal, in his plastic blue school chair, as the girl kneeled before him, Karma forcing her to place all of her money into a pile at his feet. Karma does know how to make him feel like a King, Gakushuu smugly thought to himself, as he waited with Koyama in the empty classroom.

The crowd roared as Natsuhiko opened the door, and the boy was dumped before Gakushuu’s feet. Koyama promptly shut the door behind him, and exited the room to do crowd control.

Gakushuu sighed at the trembling boy, and harnessed his father’s old energy. Sending the boy an evil look, he clicked his knuckles.

“Now, what am I going to do with you?”

* * *

Karma waited until everyone had exited the boy’s changing room. He normally skipped sports, but it was passing up an opportunity to “see his beloved in sports-wear” which would’ve been very suspicious from a relationship point of view.

“My treacle-tart!” He said, grabbing the back of Gakushuu’s shirt as he came out from the toilets. They had been banned from changing together after a ‘little love-tussle’ had gotten out of hand, with 3 other students and Ren (who was still very salty after that incident) ending up in the infirmary. He mentions this like it had been weeks ago, when in reality it had only been 3 days ago. 

The front of Gakushuu’s shirt constricted around his neck, and for a second he couldn’t breathe. With a swift elbow to Karma’s gut, however, the shirt was soon released.

“Cough, no need to be so violent sweetbun,” Kara wheezed out, and stretched his arm warily around Gakushuu’s shoulders.

He felt Gakushuu tense, before reluctantly relaxing (something only an Asano would be reluctant to do).

“Sorry bread-roll, but I’d rather not be choked at 9 in the morning,” Gakushuu replied sarcastically. 

“Is it a evening thing then? Cuz I don’t mind helping you out with that,” Karma cheekily answered, and jumped out of range of the wayward fist coming his way.

The surrounding silence of their classmates alerted them that they had interrupted attendance.

The teacher coughed, a little blush against his older features, and called out their names again- he wouldn’t ever directly challenge them disturbing class, he was much too scared of Gakuhou, Gakushuu had proudly announced to the group one day, and since then none of the 5 had been taking sports seriously. Like Karma had in the first place, but oh well.

Their classmates gave them fond looks before starting around the track. Since Karma had stopped skipping, gym had gotten a lot more fun. They couldn’t train inside the hall anymore, but as the weather warmed it wasn’t as much of an issue. It was being repaired at an alarmingly fast rate, which spoke of Asano-Senior’s involvement.

The group migrated towards the side of the track as they saw Karma open his mouth.

“Baguette! First one to complete the track gets free lunch!” 

With a sigh, the class moved to make room for the two boys sprinting around the track, one slightly ahead of the other.

“Bitc- Baby! You had a head start!” They heard Gakushuu cry from where he was running behind Karma.

Ren watched in despair as his best friend took off after their resident hooligan, and couldn’t help but sigh. Asano was more suited to long-distances, and it was common knowledge that Karma was just that bit faster and stronger than the student council president. After his second lap of 4, he stepped over the two panting bodies splayed out on the track, having completed the four laps extremely fast.

Karma was face-up, an elated smile decorating his face as he whooped for joy. Ren could practically hear the groan of disappointment coming from the facedown lump that was Asano.

On the third lap, seeing that the lumps hadn’t moved, Ren watched as Seo kicked at Karma-lump. The yelp made Araki laugh so hard he had to stop running (or that could’ve just been the running, that boy was very unfit) but what got Ren was when Karma-lump transformed into Karma once more and began to chase off after Seo. The only time Ren could remember Seo running that fast was when the swarm of seagulls had descended upon him during their middle-school beach trip. Araki still had photos.

Watching as Karma bodily tackled Seo to the floor and sat on him sent Ren into fits of giggles. 

“Cmon Gakushuu, stop sulking, lets go and help him,” Ren laughed, looking down at his best friend who had turned over and was watching the exchange with mirth in his eyes. Giving him a hand to help him up, the two boys left Koyama trying to do CPR on a twitching Araki to go and rescue their missing member. 

“Pl-please!!! HAHHA I said,, HAHA I was SORRY,” Seo said in between gasps as Karma mercilessly tickled him. 

“I want servitude for the day!” Karma said, not halting his tickle assault upon Seo. He looked up to see Ren and Gakushuu standing there.

“Ren! Asano! Help me BAHAHA-“ Seo cried, tears streaming down his face.

“Hmmm, it would be quite fun to have you as a servant for the day,” Gakushuu mused, “what do you think Ren?”

“No, ple-HAHAHAHA-PLEASE YOU ASSHOLES!”

“Lets put him out of his misery,” Ren said.

“THANK FUCK HEHEGEH I thought AHAA you guys were gonna leave me with him STOP KARMA YOU BASTARD HAHAH-“ 

“Wah, you guys are no fun!” Karma said, getting up from Seo’s abused body before he became the one pinned.  


“Like I need a servant anyway,” he continued smugly, “Shuuey is buying me lunch!”

Gakushuu’s face darkened. He made eye contact with Ren and Seo, who had now recovered and was glaring daggers at Karma, who seemed oblivious to the tirade about to come his way.

“I’m going to have the most expensive lunch, you’re rich, you can afford it-“

“GET HIM!” Gakushuu announced, pouncing upon Karma, who let out a very unmanly squeal.

Before he could dart away, Seo grabbed his ankles from where he was sitting on the floor and Karma went down with an ‘oomph’. Gakushuu quickly grabbed him under his arms and tried to tickle him, but to no avail.

“HAH! YOU FOOLS! Let me reveal my ultimate weapon!!! I am immune to tickles!” Karma crowed triumphantly, muffled from where Ren sat on his torso and by proxy, head.

Asano groaned disappointedly, before whispering quickly and quietly to Ren and Seo.

“What are you guys doing can you let go of me noOOOoOw-“ Karma’s sentence was cut short as he was lifted above ground. Gakushuu had two arms securely under Karma’s armpits, whilst Ren and Seo had a leg each, and too much of his ass for Karma’s sake.

“LET ME GO PEASANTS!” Karma squirmed, but alas, sometimes amongst all of his insane classmates and his own strength, he forgot that Gakushuu was an athlete and whilst both of his legs were restrained, he was forced to struggle weakly. Had Gakusuu always been this strong? He pondered internally, as outwardly he screamed and cursed the day Asano Gakushuu was born. His biceps feel nice, Karma thought, and reassured himself that the lingering flush on his cheeks was from the exertion.

  
The teacher watched in despair as the 3 Boys hurled a screaming delinquent into the school pond and ran away laughing as he sputtered and tried to splash water at them. With a scream, be managed to grab his boyfriends ankle as he pushed Sakakibara away from a splash, and sent him tumbling into the pond with him. He didn’t bother to control his class as they all got out their phones to document the moment, because apparently it was an ‘unmissable moment’, ‘my blog is going to love Asano with a see-through shirt’ and ‘Karma looks so cute with wet hair!’. 

Looking at it though, he did see the appeal. If one looked past the aggressive dunking of heads and the dirty water, the massive smiles on the boys’ faces and the peals of laughter as they grappled were a clear giveaway that they were together. The two boys yanked themselves shivering onto the bank, and curled around each other to conserve warmth. Yeah, he thought, as he sent them to the principal to deal with, pretty cute.

“You two did what now?”

“Went for a swim, keep up godfather.”

“We got a bit hot after running, and wanted to cool off sir.”

“So, you jumped in the pond.”

“Yes.”

“Yessir!”

“I literally saw you and your gaggle of friends throw Karma into the pond, and could audibly hear the swearing.”

“Lovers misunderstanding, Sir, I’m sure you can relate.”

“Hah, as if, my god father’s love life is as dull as my fathers, and that’s saying something as he’s married.”

“Well, thanks to Asano, you two will be spending lunchtime clearing up the water you tracked in.”

“Shuu!”

* * *

A few days, and many stopped bullies-turned-offerings later.

_Chat Group- 10 Reasons Why Seo Snr is a DILF_

  
AsaNO- Can someone save me from this stupid meeting?

  
SlutForPoetry- Seconded.

  
PhotoBomb- Can’t, Saski-Sensei has me stuck tutoring Wanatabe cuz he sucks at English

  
SlutForPoetry- You suck at English 

  
PhotoBomb- Rude. Not everyone can be multi-lingual like Asano

  
AsaNO- Ren, its your turn to present soon, please make this whole thing start to make sense.

  
SlutForPoetry- I can try, but I made my section at 1 last night It didn’t even make sense to me today

  
AsaNO- Fuck

  
NowYouSeoMe- DID BOSS JUST DO A SWORE

  
PhotoBomb- SEO UR FLUENT IN ENGLISH COME HELP PLEASE I CAN’T GOOGLE TRANSLATE EVERYTHING

  
AsaNO- I’m literally on my phone in a meeting, which by the way, Seo should be in

  
SlutForPoetry- YEAH I HAD TO COVER YOUR SLIDES WHORE WHAT ARE YOU DOING

  
NowYouSeoMe- Honestly feeling attacked right now

  
AsaNO- Also Seo don’t go and help Araki come help us

  
SlutForPoetry- Come help us then I’ll forgive you.

  
SlutForPoetry- Oop I’m presenting now. Pray for my soul!

  
PlantLover- Sorry Asano! I would help but I’ve got biology club in right now ☹

  
AsaNO- Curse me and my high achieving friends

  
PhotoBomb- Aw, was that affection Asano?

  
NowYouSeoMe- <3

  
PlantLover- <3

  
PhotoBomb- <3

  
SlutForPoetry- <3 

  
AsaNO- GO BACK TO PRESENTING REN

  
SlutForPoetry- ☹ Let me set up first 

  
[Time since last message- 5 minutes]

  
AsaNO- Seo please I’m begging you come and save me Ren’s powerpoint is exclusively made from bad memes and unironic shitposts about literature. It’s not even remotely related to the financial issues of the school. 

  
NowYouSeoMe- LMAO aren’t you president, can’t you adjourn the meeting???

  
AsaNO- I’ve tried!!! Apparently Wakatoshi-sensei finds sleep deprived Ren funny, and has refused to suspend the meeting until his presentation is over.

  
AsaNO- Hes the only one laughing

  
AsaNO- Even Ren looks depressed and you know he loves people laughing at his bad jokes.

  
NowYouSeoMe- how long is Ren’s presentation?

  
AsaNO- Let me subtly check

  
[Time sine last message- 2 minutes]

  
AsaNO- 35 slides remaining. 

  
NowYouSeoMe- yikes

  
PlantLover- RIP

  
NowYouSeoMe- I’m actually in the library right now helping Tanaka-sensei. He can’t figure out how to send an email. If you had asked me 5 minutes ago I could’ve helped.

  
AsaNO- I DID ASK YOU 5 MINUTES AGO

  
NowYouSeoMe- 😊

  
PhotoBomb- Seo when you’re done come and help me with English

  
NowYouSeoMe- sure thing 

  
AsaNO- I hate you all

  
PlantLover- ???

  
AsaNO- Except you.

  
PlantLover- <3

  
PhotoBomb- Rude.

  
NowYouSeoMe- Just ask your boyfriend boss. I bet he’d be happy to help, I can see him in a painful looking conversation with a first-year.

  
PlantLover- Karma rescuing Gakushuu from the clutches of an evil meeting!!! How romantic!!!

  
AsaNO- The worst thing is I cant tell if you’re being sarcastic or not.

  
AsaNO- I have not sunk to that level yet

  
[Time since last message- 3 minutes]

  
AsaNO- okay please tell him to come and help me Seo

NowYouSeoMe- Well, that was quick

  
PhotoBomb- that’s what she said 

  
PhotoBomb- or he

  
PhotoBomb- we don’t discriminate in this family.

  
AsaNO- We are not a family

  
PhotoBomb- Are too

  
AsaNO- Are not

  
PhotoBomb- Are too

  
AsaNo- Are not

  
PlantLover- If we are a family that makes Asano the mom

  
AsaNO- One, we are not a family, two, I am not the mom 

  
PlantLover- Are too

  
AsaNO- Am not

  
NowYouSeoMe- I second Koyama

  
PhotoBomb- I third it! 

  
PlantLover- Ah, I do love democracy

  
NowYouSeoMe- Boss is totally the mom friend, remember that time that Ren fell over a log during sports and twisted his ankle?

  
PhotoBomb- Yeah! Not only did you lecture him for 20 minutes about safety WHILST HELPING TO CARRY HIM TO THE INFIRMARY 

  
PhotoBomb- But you stitched his shorts overnight for him where they had ripped, made him lunch, and decorated his bandage when he said it was drab despite you being bad at art

  
AsaNO- I-

  
AsaNO- I’m not that bad at art am I??? 

  
PlantLover- erm

  
NowYouSeoMe- …

  
PhotoBomb- *awkward cough*

  
AsaNO- Araki you can’t awkward cough over text

  
AsaNO- Fine. I get the message.

  
PlantLover- You could just use some practice!!!

  
NowYouSeoMe- Yeah Boss! Keep trying!

  
SlutForPoetry- Don’t coddle him. He can do with being bad at something. For once.

  
AsaNO- Ren you still have 24 slides of bad memes left to go. I’ve been counting.

  
AsaNO- He just middle-fingered me in the middle of the meeting.

  
AsaNO- On the topic of meeting Seo have you sent Karma yet?

  
NowYouSeoMe- Oh I thought you were messaging him

  
AsaNO- …

  
AsaNO- Do I have to do everything in this household???

  
PlantLover- I’m wheezing

  
PhotoBomb- DID ASANO MAKE A MOM JOKE

  
NowYouSeoMe- IM DYING

  
_Chat Group- Five Virtuosos + One Bastard Boy_

  
Created- 1 minute ago

  
_Math added Science, Japanese, SocialStudies, English and Satan_

  
Satan- OH!

  
_Satan changed their name to BetterMaths_

  
BetterMaths- You know this group chat insinuates the existence of another chat that I am not apart of

  
Science- Look what the cat dragged in

  
SocialStudies- Are you calling Asano a cat

  
SocialStudies- I thought we had clarified that he was mom

  
BetterMath- HAHAHHA

  
Math- Traitors

  
English- Asano is the mom friend, change my mind

  
Math- I am NOT THE MOM FRIEND

  
BetterMath- Cupcake

  
BetterMath- Biscuit

  
BetterMath- Honey bun

  
Math- Stop calling me an assortment of baked goods

  
BetterMath- You are the mom friend

  
SocialStudies- SEE

  
Science- If Asano is mom does that make Akabane dad

  
Math- WE ARE NOT TOGETHER

  
English- Emotionally absent, awkward unless it involves something he loves, a bit of a meathead, struggles with empathy

  
English- Yes. Karma is the dad

  
BetterMath- well

  
BetterMath- did I just get psychoanalysed by Seo??

  
Math- Now you see what I have to put up with 

  
Japanese- I WANNA BE THE GORGEOUS TEENAGE SON

  
English- No you’re the depressed uncle that hangs around his sibling (cough Asano) because he can’t get a wife

  
BetterMath- GO OFF SEO!!!!

  
Math- Ren go back to your presentation

  
BetterMath- KING

  
English- Why thank you. I’m glad someone notices me for my worth

  
Math- Don’t feed his ego Karma

  
Math- and since when do you use American terms?

  
BetterMath- Rukiyo has gOT THEM STUCK IN MY HEAD

  
Math- Ah.

  
Math- Anyways.

  
Math- Karma, please come and rescue me from this awful meeting. The others cant and I don’t think I will live through another 18 of Ren’s awful meme slides

  
BetterMath- Aw, does the president need my help?

  
Science- …

  
Math- No, I merely need your cooperation

  
BetterMath- Say you need my help and I’ll come

  
Japanese- He’ll come alright

  
SocialStudies- ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

  
Math- REN I’M WARNING YOU

  
Math-…

  
Math- Fine. I need your help.

  
BetterMath- Good, but not good enough

  
English- POOR BOSS HAHAH

  
Math- You could’ve come and helped me ages ago Seo, you better run very fast as soon as I get out of here

  
English- …

  
English- sorry boss

  
Math- Good

  
BetterMath- Yikes. You guys are whipped

  
SocialStudies- Mom’s scary when she’s angry

  
Science- JKSHOSHS

  
BetterMath- DEAD

  
Math- ARAKI YOU ARE ON THIN ICE

  
BetterMath- But Gakushuu you’ve gotta get out before you can chase them :0

  
BetterMath- Say please and I’ll come

  
SocailStudies- oh he’ll come alright

  
Science- kinky

  
English- oh he’ll come alright

  
English- ARAKI YOU STOLE MY LINE

  
Math- You all must be feeling rather brave today to be testing me right now

  
Math- Don’t forget I have a father with deep pockets and a relentless revenge drive

  
Science-…

  
English- sorry

  
Science- sorry

  
SocialStudies- sorry

  
Math- 😊

  
SocialStudies- hey how come Akabane gets away without a sorry!

  
BetterMath- cuz Gakushuu still needs me to help him rn

  
BetterMath- I hold the cards

  
Japanese- I bet Karma gets off on this

  
Science- CRYING

  
BetterMath- alright im not saving Ren

  
Japanese- NO I’M SORRY SAVE ME

  
Math- REN

  
BetterMath- lmao yeah you better run 

  
BetterMath- So

  
BetterMath- Shuu.

  
Math-…..

BetterMath- Its ok, I can wait 

  
[Time since last message- 3 minutes]

  
Math- I cant stand it

  
Math- Help

  
Math- Please

  
Math- Help

  
Math- Help

  
BetterMath- Was that so hard?

Math- HELP

BetterMath- omw

  
Math- Thank god

  
Gakushuu waited 5 more long torturous minutes of Ren awkwardly droning. Wakatoshi-sensei looked completely enthralled by the half-ideas that sleep deprived Ren had written, filled with 2010 memes. If he ever had to look at another ‘troll face’ meme about financing he would kill someone. Most likely himself.

  
Just as he is debating calling Karma to get his ass into gear, there was a knock at the door.

“Hey! Is it okay if I can steal Gakushuu for a minute? There’s been an issue with some spray paint and the principal wants to see us,” Karma’s head said as it poked around the door.

Wakatoshi-sensei narrowed his eyes, but apparently the intense look Gakushuu was sending him was enough to convince him.

“Okay, as you’ve presented already, you can go. But I expect a full detailed plan-of-action by the end of the week.”

Gakushuu got a lot of envious looks from the student council and other attending club members as he stood to go. 

"Cmon, biscuit, the Principal wants us ASAP!” Karma called from the door.

Gakushuu hid his scowl at the nickname, and brushed past a pleading Ren, who looked so desperate to leave. Alas, Gakushuu thought as he smiled sweetly at his friend before leaving him behind, sacrifices must be made for the greater good.

As soon as the door had closed and they had rounded the corner, Gakushuu all but collapsed into the floor.

“What was so bad that you had to sacrifice your pride for me to come and help babe?” Karma teased.

Burying his face into his hands, Gakushuu groaned in despair.

“30 minutes of incompetent council members who apparently don’t know the first thing about financial management, added onto a solid 20 minutes of Ren.”

“Ren?”

“Remember that one presentation in English about modern culture where Ren discovered old memes.”

“Ah.”

“Picture that, but 40 slides of purely coffee-driven, last minute presentation memes about financial planning with obvious math errors, spelling mistakes and awkward laughter. All in a stuffy room.”

Karma chuckled before holding a hand out to help Gakushuu up.

“Well, I’m glad I could be of service. But, there was some truth to what I heroically dragged you out for.”

Gakushuu paused in getting up, his hand halting in Karma’s grip.

“What have you done,” he questioned angrily. He had endured enough today, he was already pissed at Karma for making him swallow his pride, the other virtuosos for suddenly having the balls to talk to him like a friend (which on any other day he would’ve been secretly happy at, but today was not that day) as well as having 2 hours of judo to suffer through tonight. 

Karma must have realised the very thin wire Gakushuu’s patience was toeing, because he hastily pulled Gakushuu up and began to tug him through the school halls. Most people were in the cafeteria or in club room since it was lunch, so the halls were relatively empty.  
One could never be too certain though, Gakushuu thought, and decided to let Karma keep holding his hand. Nothing about it feeling nice when he was stressed.

“First we are going to the lunch hall. lunch hall. You haven’t eaten yet have you? Explains why you’re stress. Hangry Gakushuu isn’t something I want to deal with right now.”

“h-Hangry???” Gakushuu sputtered as he let himself be led down the hallways. It was oddly thoughtful.

“Hungry and angry. Keep up pumpkin,” Karma teased, throwing a cheeky smile over his shoulder that sent Gakushuu’s heart doing flip-flops in his chest for completely unknown reasons.

“About that, you really need to come up with some variations in your nicknames sweetheart. You cant keep calling me food items, particularly baked goods.” Asano retorted dryly.  
Karma scoffed.

“Like yours are much better. You sound like you’re a wartime wife writing to her army husband. Oh dearest! My eternal love! Precious lover!” Karma said, putting on an accent and fake swooning.

Gakushuu had to laugh at the ridiculous scene Karma painted. It was nice to relax like this after a long day. With a twirl of Karma’s swooning body, Gakushuu ad dipped Karma to the floor like a dancer, still giggling about the nicknames. He looked down at Karma with a smirk, who stared wide-eyed back at him. Red bangs fell into Karma’s eyes, and Gakushuu couldn’t help but notice the pretty pink that smeared itself across Karma’s cheekbones.

“Well, at least mine sound romantic. It’s hard to associate a couple with the names like tart or layer cake, to name a few of the awful names I’ve been called.”  
Karma snapped out of whatever trance he was in with a snort.

“You love it really.”

“Debateable.”

“As much as you guys are adorable, it might be better to romance each other somewhere else besides the open door to the cafeteria,” Rukiyo’s amused voice called out to them. Gakushuu paled and dropped Karma, who squawked at the treatment.

Every eye in the cafeteria was on them, many people with phones out. It was one thing to act and let the crowd come to you, but to do it in front of a crowd that big?

With an awkward cough, Gakushuu started into the cafeteria, and heard Karma scramble up behind him. Chatter resumed in the hall, but eyes remained firmly upon them. An arm slid around his waist as Karma finally caught up with him, and he saw that Rukiyo had her arm around Karma’s waist.

“How are my favourite love-birds doing today?” she asked.

“Bad. Karma, pick out what you want. I still owe you from the running incident,” Gakushuu answered curtly, and promptly turned his back on the crowd watching him. He suddenly felt sick of this stupid act, and the thought of eyes watching his every move for mistakes made him feel sick-

A pull to his arm brought Gakushuu back to reality. Karma poked him with a weird look on his face.

“Relax dude, this isn’t real,” he said, handing him a can of coffee. Gakushuu tried to focus on picking out his sandwich, but Karma’s arm burned around his waist, his skin felt too tight, he couldn’t stand the thought of failure around this many people. What if they saw through the act? What if his father found out? What if his social rank was affected by this?  
Distantly, he felt Karma’s arm tighten around his waist. He was pulled towards the counter, and before he could move, Karma had paid for their meal. 

“Don’t worry about it, pay me back another time, okay honey?” he said, more than a bit of suspicion clouding his tone. It snapped Gakushuu out of the panic ridden thoughts that had been swirling in his head. 

Rukiyo was looking at the two of them fondly, like she knew something they didn’t.

“I’ll leave you two be, get him out of here Karma” she said, pushing the two of them towards the exit. Karma tugged at Gakushuu’s hand, having moved it from its previous position on his hips to link their fingers together. Gakushuu stared blankly at their intwined fingers before he moved them outside of the prying eyes of the student body.  
He thought about Rukiyo’s look. He wouldn’t consider her and him close, she was more Karma’s friend that his, but he had learnt a lot about the girl during this time. He hoped they could be friends when this was all over.

Karma led the two of them behind the school building, towards where the wall skirted the field. Gakushuu gladly sat on the soft grass, and let feel of solid ground calm him down. Karma pushed a sandwich towards him and they ate in silence, Gakushuu grateful that Karma chose not to tease about him saving Gakushuu more than once today.  
Gakushuu couldn’t keep his eyes off of Karma. Their hands weren’t entwined anymore, but Gakushuu still felt a strong desire to have something of his upon the boy. Karma was resolutely keeping his eyes away from Gakushuu, so Asano could freely stare at the boy’s profile. 

Karma was handsome, there was no denying it, as much as it irked him. He had sharp facial features, soft lips and long lashes. But what was his selling point were his wide, pretty eyes, an odd colour but complemented by the bright colour of his hair. He really had nice eyes, Gakushuu thought dumbly to himself.

Karma cleared his throat.

“So, wanna see what I’ve been working on these past few days?”

Gakushuu trailed his eyes along the slope of Karma’s neck, down to defined collarbones shown by Karma’s open blazer.

“Lead the way.”

The two of them wandered over towards the edge of the brick wall, before coming to a stop in front of a large graffiti artwork on the wall.

  
Gakushuu’s eyes wandered down Karma’s arms. He had nice arms, they were much more built that his. He understood that Karma was a brawler, and must have experience carting around heavy things. They were the most defined muscle on his body, and god was Gakushuu jealous. He had always found weightlifting dull, so stuck to working on his core and legs for martial arts. He could appreciate a good pairs of arms when he saw them. He wandered what it would feel like being embraced by them.

  
Karma let a sly smile grace his features. “I wanted it to be directly in the view of the principal from his office. Wanted him to see it every time he looks outside. Araki has been blogging that people should put their names around it. Something semi-permanent like this should start the next phase off well, don’t you think?”

  
Gakushuu finally took his eyes off of the boy next to him, and viewed the artwork. It was a massive heart, being almost the height of the wall itself, with the words ‘Shuuey x Kar-Kar’ inside. 

  
“No cameras caught me doing it, so we can’t get in trouble. With all this attention there’s no way of proving that we wrote it,” Karma said with an evil smile.  
Gakushuu smiled back.

  
“It’s a good way to start phase 2. Something that can be washed off, and if all goes well then there should be names on there by tomorrow. Makes it harder to pin on us. Well done.”  
Karma’s face lit up at the praise. It made Gakushuu’s stomach churn. 

  
Karma pulled out his phone. 

  
“C’mon then, let’s get a photo for the main blog. Say cheese!”

  
Karma wrapped his arm around Gakushuu’s shoulder, holding the phone up so that the heart could be seen in the background. Gakushuu sighed, but moved his head so that it was resting upon Karma’s shoulder. The camera clicked, and Gakushuu pulled away from the warmth of Karma’s body.

  
“To phase 2!” Karma said, sending out the photo to Araki.

  
“Good job with the bullies. If all goes well, then we should be able to expand out at some point, if you’d like that. Outside of school.” Gakushuu said.

  
Karma hummed thoughtfully.

  
“Would make me a superhero then, wouldn’t it?”  
Gakushuu snorted.

  
“Kar-Kar the renounced saviour of the people. An ego the size of Tokyo.”

  
Karma laughed, and they began to make their way back towards the main building as the bell rung.

  
Gakushuu wondered as he sat in his chair, as to when in this mess he had begun to enjoy Karma’s company.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I give Gakushuu a near panic attack just so he could admire Karma from afar? Yes.
> 
> I love Gakushuu with my whole heart, but we also have to give Karma some love. Don't worry, I will go back to admiring Shuu through Karma next chapter.
> 
> Also I rewatched some assclass scenes, and in that scene where Gakushuu kicks a football at Gakuhou there's a moment where he turns around and Asano got cake! I needed to rant about that. Watch it and you'll see.
> 
> Also: Check out my other fic! I'm writing this alongside it, and I'd like to hear your thoughts on that too.
> 
> Leave any comments!
> 
> (also this chapter was written solely to Daddy Issues by the Neighbourhood. Can anyone else imagine Karma singing that to Gakushuu?? No?? Just me?? Well.)
> 
> Please leave feedback! Any suggestions, help, or any mistakes I'd made would be appreciated. Love you!


	9. Moving Things Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some plans, some parents, and someone gets hurt, and Karma realises something about himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long!
> 
> I don't have much motivation to write until I'm in the swing of it, so this was painful to get going. But then I couldn't stop.
> 
> TW- mentions of blood in this chapter, also I have no medical training what so ever so idek if any of this is even accurate.
> 
> Hope you enjoy anyway!
> 
> (chat names are the same as last time)
> 
> (( also there was a time skip between last chapter and this one. I have not decided how long, but take it as like 2 or 3 weeks later ))

Araki had created a page online talking about Karma (anonymously obviously) and that he was "eradicating bullying in the area". It was clear that people were starting to get the message, and by just how many messages and questions were sent in showed how big of an issue bullying was in the area. Local schools and communities were now sending in bullying reports into the new website Araki had created. Due to the fact that it was a wealthy area, schools were often too afraid to crack down on the bullies for fear of evoking the wrath of mommy and daddy. But, since they didn't want to transfer that wrath onto Karma, it was imperative that they found a good method of dealing with the bullying.  
  


And in their school, and the few very close, they had found that method.  
  


Due to the sudden fame that they had curated, people flocked to them. Everywhere they went, people asked for photos or gossip about the couple. And apparently? That celebrity status translated. On their main blog, now with over ten thousand (!!!) followers, they posted who they were shaming. Technically, as the account wasn't actually run by Gakushuu and Karma, but by Araki and Kabaya (who had remained anonymous once more) they shamed these people, and sent Karma over to the school to single them out and create a ruckus.  
  


The best part, Gakushuu thought, was the name that they had so kindly gifted Karma with (which had been thanks to him after all).  
  
  


Kar-Kar, eradicating hate one bully at a time.  
  
  


The group had howled with laughter at hearing the name for the first time, and especially after Karma had voiced his intense distaste for the name. It seemed that the local area also had a sense of humor too, because the name persistently stuck.  
  


"Look!! It's Kar-Kar and Shuu-chan!"  
  


Yeah, okay, his name wasn't much better, but at least it wasn't Kar-Kar, Gakushuu thought as the two of them did their daily publicity stunt.  
  


Gakushuu smiled at the two girls who were waving shyly at them from across the square. Karma had taken the two of them after school (Gakushuu had temporarily stopped many of his numerous clubs for this scheme) to the local food market to go and get some snacks. They were holding hands, and surprisingly people had kept to themselves today. Normally they got at least one homophobic comment, but so far today had been nice. Really nice.  
  


Karma adjusted his hold on the knife in his other hand so the stall manager who was sending them dirty looks could see it, and made sure he had a super psychotic smile on his face. He watched with glee as the adult shuddered and averted his gaze. Good, he better get his filthy eyes off of them. Karma only put his knife away when the time to pay came, which despite Gakushuu's protests, he paid for. He passed one ice cream to Gakushuu (vanilla, the basic bitch) and strawberry for himself, and they wandered off towards a park to eat it. The weather was getting warmer, making it perfect for fake-dates like this.  
  


Pulling Gakushuu down onto the grass, the two boys sat and ate their ice creams. Gakushuu was telling him about some martial arts competition, but Karma wasn't paying attention, more happily focused on seeing the way Gakushuu's eyes sparkled when he spoke about something he was passionate about. The slight flush to his cheeks from running from thugs Karma had antagonised earlier. The slight bruising of his lips from the cold ice cream and the chewing at it he did when he pondered a detail.  
  


Gakushuu turned his head to Karma quizzically.  
  


"You okay?" He asked. Karma lazily brought his attention back to Gakushuu's voice, and smiled at him.  
  


Gakushuu huffed, pouting at Karma a bit.  
  


"You weren't listening were you, sugar puff" he said, not even having to ask. Karma subtly noted the way that his hair fell in his face.  
  


Cute.  
  


Oh, of course! How could he forget. The new development, Karma thought sarcastically, that I find the boy I'm fake dating extraordinarily pretty. Gakushuu was still looking at him funny, so he laughed.  
  


"It's not a big deal munchkin, sorry I wasn't paying attention," he said, rubbing his thumb over the back of Gakushuu's hand. Gakushuu looked slightly placated, but still annoyed. They sat in silence for a few seconds, before Gakushuu readjusted their hands together and held them to Karma's chest. This had become their code for when people were nearby. The fact that their hands were towards Karma meant that the people watching were behind him. At least he had an excuse for his obliviousness. God, get it together Akabane, you're supposed to be an assassin.  
  


Gakushuu smirked a bit before leaning forward slowly. Karma's mouth suddenly felt dry. The smirk was still in place, bit Gakushuu's eyes were lidded slightly, and please lord Jesus he knows he hasn't been all that good but could they kiss? Just once God, nothing much-  
  


"Want to try, shortcake?" Gakushuu purred at Karma, mere centimetres from Karma's face.  
  


Try? From your mouth? Most certainly.  
  


But before Karma could voice this, a vanilla ice cream cone was thrust in his face.  
  


"Try it, it's good," Gakushuu said, pressing the ice-cream to Karma's lips.  
  


Begrudgingly, Karma licked the ice-cream in front of him. Vanilla was so boring, his was better.  
  


"What do you think?" Gakushuu asked.  
  


"Hmm, okay. Not sweet enough, mine is better," he said, and tried very hard not to be affected by the slight pout Gakushuu made afterwards.  
  


"I want to try yours," Gakushuu demanded.  
  


"No need to be bossy, pancake," Karma said drily. Gakushuu rolled his eyes, but darted out his tongue to lick at Karma's strawberry ice-cream. Immediately he made a face.  
  


"Oh cmon, it's not that bad, you're overreacting deliberately!" Karma complained.  
  


"It's so sweet! How can you eat that?" Gakushuu complained back, frowning at the taste on his tongue.  
  


"Not as sweet as you, honey," Karma said in a fake-sleazy voice, making Gakushuu snort.  
  


"I prefer vanilla anyway," Gakushuu said in exactly the same tone, and whilst making over-dramatic eyebrow movements licked at the same place on his ice-cream that Karma had. It was enough to send Karma into a fit of giggles, but he restrained it at the sound of gasping behind him.  
  


"Indirect kiss!" Came the loud 'whisper' and the click of a camera. Karma had the urge to roll his eyes.  
  


Suddenly the ice cream was kicked from Gakushuu's hands and they turned to see the gang of local thugs Karma had beaten up last week surrounding them.  
  


"Oi! This your boyfriend?" They said as they grabbed Gakushuu under his arms as he mournfully wailed about the loss of his ice cream.  
  


"Why is it mine that got kicked! Yours was the shit one!" Gakushuu complained from where he was bring restrained.  
  


"I can just buy you another babe," Karma said, annoyed at his date being crashed, as he stood up and dusted his clothes off.  
  


"Hey! We mean it, we will fuck him up!" Said the gang leader threateningly, but he still seemed cautious, slightly too afraid of Karma to come too close.  
  


With a sigh, Karma got ready to fight.  
  


"Shuu-bear, I trust that you can escape yourself?" Karma asked as he punched one guy cleanly in the nose, whilst kneeing another in the gut.  
  


"Obviously, Kar-Kar-my-love-muffin, who do you take me for?" Gakushuu replied sarcastically as he elbowed his captor in the gut and swept the feet out from under the other 2 men around him.  
  


In about 5 minutes they had 10 injured or unconscious gang members, one very scared leader and a pool of vanilla ice cream on the floor.  
  


"P-please! I'll do anything you want! I can't afford the hospital bills!" The remaining member stammered.  
  


Gakushuu was sulking by the ice cream counter as the two girls from before gushed to him about how heroic he was. Gakushuu looked extremely polite but Karma knew him well enough to know that he was getting angry the longer he was distracted from getting a new ice cream. His hair looked nice after a fight, Karma mused as Gakushuu swept it back with his fingers. It looked soft.  
  


"Erm, h-hello?"  
  


Karma's attention snapped back to the poor thug he had in a headlock.  
  


"Look asshole, I've dealt with you guys once before. I'm giving you one chance to keep yourself out of the hospital."  
  


The bully nodded furiously.  
  


"Anything! I swear it!"  
  


Gakushuu started to walk over with a new ice cream and the two girls from before practically glowing.  
  


“Fine Mr Gangster, I’ll to you later when Shuuey is gone!”  
  


“O-Okay! I’ll just, ah, wait here then?”  
  


Karma side eyed the man as Gakushuu approached.  
  


"Really! You're sure we can post this?"  
  


"You're so kind Shuu-chan!"  
  


"Don't worry about it," Gakushuu said, with the sincerity of those fake designer bags.  
  


"Tag us please!" Karma said with a smile, trying to stop his 'boyfriend' from murdering two school girls. The two in question giggled happily, took a selfie with them and skipped off, not at all fazed that they had just watched and filmed a fight.  
  


Karma sighed and placed the trembling body still in a headlock in the floor. He gave the man a look to 'stay' and turned to Gakushuu.  
  


"I've decided to keep this one a little while longer shortbread. I'll question him in a bit," Karma said.  
  


Gakushuu scrunched his nose up adorably.  
  


"Sure he isn't gonna attack us again, biscuit?"  
  


"Nah, he's tame. Aren't you?" Karma pressed his boot up against the man's throat and sneered down at him. The man passed out from fear.  
  


"Well done Karma, now we have to hide the body," Gakushuu said drily. "And we are gonna be late."  
  


Karma rolled his eyes.  
  


"I didn't do it! I'll move him, you go ahead and meet the girl we have an appointment with. I'll catch up after I've dealt with this one."  
  


Gakushuu raised an eyebrow.  
  


"Surely it's not going to take that long, I don't understand why we need to split up," he said.  
  


"It'll only be 5 minutes sugar plum, but I'm happy to stay with you if you don't think you can handle being apart." Karma said with a wink. Gakushuu fake-laughed, punched Karma in the stomach for good measure.  
  


"It's fine. You can discuss the details of whatever surprise that you have planned this weekend with the gang leader, don't mind me," Gakushuu said, a little smirk on his lips.  
  


Karma blanched.  
  


"W-what! How did you know! I wasn't that obvious was I?" Karma exclaimed.  
  


"You left a two hour patch in the middle labelled 'snack break w/ the gang’ babe. You don’t like gangs." Gakushuu said with a fond smile.  
  


“I like snacks though!”  
  


“Yes, but your snack breaks aren’t 2 hours are they?”  
  


"Fuck," Karma cursed under his breath.  
  


Gakushuu looked a lot happier than before, having acquired a new ice cream cone that was given to him for free (now pistachio flavour, the old man) and now that the 2 girls were gone.  
  


"Fine, I'll meet you at the spot asap. Don't start without me though!" Karma said as he fireman carried the poor gang-leader that was unconscious on the floor. The rest of the gang had limped off when Karma had moved over to headlock the leader, and the remaining unconscious ones had been left bundled in a bush to wait for the police to make their rounds. He noticed Gakushuu's eyes linger on his biceps as he carried the man, and made sure to flex his arms as much as possible. For no particular reason.  
  


After Gakushuu had gone, Karma carried the man towards the gang's main area of hangout (which consisted of a dirty parking area behind the super market. Karma thought it was weak for a gang base. He personally would have done it a lot differently). As he was walking, he thought about the logistics of the surprise.  
  


"Y-you two are very sweet together!" The gang leader suddenly announced from Karma's shoulder.  
  


Karma definitely did not jump, and definitely did not half drop the man. He twisted and threw the man onto the floor, making the landing a lot harder on the man than it should have been. Oh well.  
  


"I-I'm sorry! I meant no offence! I just meant to say that you obviously like him a lot!"  
  


“What!?” Karma asked, tightening his grip on the other man threateningly. This gang member couldn’t have been older than him by a few years, yet he looked ready to puke at the thought of Karma’s ire. He trembled but continued.  
  


"Yo-your boyfriend? The blonde one?" The gangster looked very confused at this point.  
  


"I look like I like him??" Karma questioned incredulously, eyes wide with panic. His brain was currently broadcasting the figurative version of ?!?!?!?.  
  


"A-are you not supposed to??" The poor man kept going valiantly, despite being scared shitless of the high schooler who had him by the neck.  
  


Karma stood above the gangster for a solid minute in silence. The man had gone through the five stages of grief very quickly I'm the past 10 minutes and only now did he reach the acceptance stage. Death, at least come fast, he wanted everything to be left to his sister in his will, and being the good god-fearing man that he was he just wanted to die peacefully-  
  


"Can you keep a secret?"  
  


The man’s thoughts were halted suddenly, and he sat speechless.  
  


"Well? Can you?" Karma said, digging his heel into the other's chest.  
  


"Yes! Yes I can! I will be the best secret keeper ever boss!"  
  


Karma sighed and sat down next to the gangster on the grass. Fuck, the man thought, I'm going to be partial to some crime. Arson? Blackmail? Whatever it is, I don't want to apart of it!  
  


"Me and Shuu aren't actually dating you know."  
  


Of all the things he had expected to hear, it was not that.  
  


Karma took his silence as a cue to continue.  
  


"We were set up by his god-father, who is also coincidentally our principal to avoid more damages to the schools, and yeah it sounds kinds preposterous but we started dating to spite him, plus we can now do as much property damage as we want-"  
  


Oh no. Hell no. Arson would've been better. He wasn't going to be some dating guru for a high school kid and his boyfriend. He refused, that was low, even for him-  
  


"Hey? Hey! Are you even listening?" Karma snapped his fingers in front of the guy's face and moved his heel up to his throat.  
  


"Yes! Yes I promise!" The man wheezed. "I just don't understand why you aren't fixing the issue!"  
  


Okay, good start for not being a dating therapist, well done, he thought to himself drily.  
  


"Hah? What do you mean, issue?"  
  


The man mentally face-palmed.  
  


"T-the issue that you like him?"  
  


As soon as the words had left his lips he snapped his mouth shut. Fuck, he was going to be murdered, killed by a high schooler for insinuating that he liked another boy. The red-head looked murderous for a few seconds, and he began to continue mentally writing his will.  
  


What he wasn't expecting was for the boy above him to start laughing.  
  


"Don't be silly Mr gangster man! I don't like Shuu!" He scoffed.  
  


Ah great, not only is the high schooler dangerous, but he's dumb as fuck. Was he unaware of himself? Or just blind?  
  


"Okay, I can admit I'm attracted to him, and that I find him hot, but I'd never date him for real. His personality is the equivalent of sewage steeped in shit, added onto a mountain of competitiveness. Plus his daddy issues are off the charts."  
  


"O-okay, so just be friends with benefits then?"  
  


That sent the boy into a fluster, and also sent his head careening into the pavement painfully. Note to self, don't make sex jokes around stupid redheads.  
  


"As if I'd ever sink that low!" Karma scoffed, face as red as his hair.  
  


Yeah, that’s what I thought too, about 20 seconds ago, the man thought.  
  


"Anyway, that isn't what I needed to talk to you about. You want to stay out of the hospital right?"  
  


The man nodded furiously, head spinning from where it had been shoved into the tarmac for suggesting two boys sex it out -holy hell it had been a long day. He just wanted to go home.  
  


"Good! My number is in your phone. Follow the instructions that I send you! Understand?"  
  


The gangster nodded and accepted his fate. He hoped it was nothing that would get him killed.  
  


* * *

"W-whose house exactly are we toilet-papering?"  
  


"No no, are you think? Do I have to slap some sense into you? You're egging the house, I'm spray painting it! Tell your goons that **they** are toilet papering it!" Karma snapped, outnumbered 10 to 1 by the men but still holding total control over them through utter terror.  
  


"Y-yes sir!"  
  


"Man, I finally know how Gakushuu feels. It's nice to have minions to boss around," Karma mused.  
  


"Sorry to bother you, but please can you tell me why we are covering this house in salmon coloured toilet paper? Wouldn’t white be good enough?”  
  


"No questions! Only toilet papering! Get back to work!"  
  


So we are toilet papering a house for the boy he thinks is attractive and 'dating' but doesn't want to date, thought the gang leader from before (reading between the lines), as a surprise present to him.  
  


But he would never actually date him and claims not to like him.  
  


He made his way over towards Karma as the first eggs began to fly.  
  


"I think you should ask him out for real," he said bravely, tensing in preparation for a strike.  
  


"I've already told you! I don't like him! Now less mouthing off, more throwing," Karma said, starting to spray paint the sides of the house. Again, in the odd choice of the colour salmon.  
  


The gang boss pitied whoever's house this was.  
  


* * *

The principal sat irate across from one of the Asanos in their lounge.  
  


"So, Gakuhou, you thought it was funny to tell Gakushuu about my hatred for salmon?"  
  


Gakuhou chuckled darkly.  
  


"You underestimate my son. Your hatred for salmon is a universally known fact, and do you really take Gakushuu as someone who wouldn't notice?"  
  


"Okay, well that doesn't change the fact that he toilet papered my entire house!"  
  


Gakuhou just looked very smug.  
  


"How do you know it was him?"  
  


The principal sputtered angrily.  
  


"W-WHAT?? Well who else would it have been?"  
  


"I've heard the gangs have been very active lately." He said with a shrug, but his face turned sour for a second. Gakushuu chose this moment to stride into the entrance way from school.  
  


"Dad's house got egged last week too. Also, shouldn't you have been at school, god-father?"  
  


The principal grumbled into his tea and Gakuhou glared angrily.  
  


"Don't tell me how to do my job."  
  


"You live here too brat!"  
  


Gakushuu observed the odd looking mother's meeting that his 'family' were having. Two very dangerous men gossiping competitively about their kids as they were at school over tea and biscuits.  
  


"Ah, complaints aside. My condolences about your house, godfather."  
  


"Hey! Brat! Where were you on Saturday!"  
  


"Don't call my son a brat! Only I get to do that!"  
  


Gakushuu looked very amused.  
  


"Me and Karma had a picnic date. It was filmed and put on twitter if you want proof." Gakushuu said as he showed the principal photos of the picnic date (which had actually been filmed the weekend before in advance, but no one needed to know that).  
  


The principles sullenly accepted it and went back to bitterly sipping his tea.  
  


"By the way Father, I'm staying at Ren's tonight. We are having a study sleepover to prepare for exams."  
  


His father narrowed his eyes.  
  


"Is Akabane going to be there?"  
  


Gakushuu raised an eyebrow.  
  


"Last time I checked, yes he was."  
  


"Then you aren't going."  
  


Gakushuu rolled his eyes.  
  


"Nothing is going to happen Dad, don't be weird."  
  


Gakuhou spluttered.  
  


"Weird! It's a normal parental reaction! I refuse to allow my son and his boyfriend unaccompanied to sleep in the same room!"  
  


"We aren't unaccompanied, Ren, Seo, Koyama and Araki are going to be there too. Plus, since when are we a normal father/son relationship?" Gakushuu said, blushing a bit despite knowing himself that the accusations were off seeing as he and Karma weren't actually dating.  
  


Gakuhou turned to the principal.  
  


"Okay, normalcy aside, would you let one of your daughter's sleep over with their boyfriend? Even with friends around?"  
  


Gakushuu's godfather was still sulking.  
  


"Well, it's not like Gakushuu can get pregnant is it? I say go in ahead, have all the unsupervised sex you want. And I'd always assumed that you and your little friend group got it on anyway. They all worship the ground you walk on."

Gakushuu flushed a deep red, and stammered angrily. Gakuhou wailed despondently into his plate.  
  


"I knew it! My sweet son! Defiled by those mediocre minions!"  
  


"Shut up Dad! Me and my friends have never! They're all straight anyway! Why are you acting like this??" Gakushuu said, still a deep shade of red. It was only then did he notice the empty bottle of whisky and slightly odd smelling tea.  
  


“Now what do I do? I’ll have to kill my son’s only friends! To save the Asano dignity!”  
  


“But then Gakushuu will have no dignity or friends. Just Akabane. Isn’t that somehow worse?”  
  


“I’ll have to kill Akabane too!”  
  


“Well who’s your son going to have sex with then?”  
  


Gakuhou shrieked and covered his ears. Gakushuu took this as a good time to leave or suffer even more embarrassment.  
  


"Well, you senile old men can get drunk together, I'll leave you in peace. Have fun on your own tonight Dad." Gakushuu said, grabbing his pre-packed bag and bolting out of the door.  
  


"BRAT!" came two voices in unison as he slammed the door shut.

* * *

"Karma! You and Gakushuu are on snack duty!" Koyama called from where he sat upon the beanbag, having been designated time keeper for the group study session that night.  
  


They had been studying for a few hours, interspersed with breaks filled with laughing at photos of the angry principal outside his wrecked house, or Asano Snr outside of his. But that hadn’t been the main aim of the evening’s coordination.  
  


Earlier that evening the group had also hit the school. And by hit, they meant ‘hit’, with eggs and toilet paper. Seeing the normally stuck up group’s faces flush with the act of rebellion, the slightly out of breath shrieks of laughter as Koyama egged Seo over the head. Watching Gakushuu laugh, truly, properly laugh, not the fake thing he does at school. A look of pure happiness on all of their faces, and Karma realised that he would do a lot to keep these people as his friends. He wasn’t used to trying to keep friends, but as the sun started to set over the school, and Gakushuu grinned at him, he realised he would fight to keep these people close to him.  
  


It would also be a funny sight to see the principal’s face after the weekend when he saw the state of the school.  
  


“Yeah! You two go! I’m really hungry, so don’t take too long,” Araki said with a wink.  
  


"What? But isn't it Seos-"  
  


"Nope! Pretty sure your turn Asano!" Koyama loudly interrupted again. Seo barely restrained his sigh. It had been his turn.  
  


"Fine. We'll be back soon."  
  


Karma and Gakushuu made their way out if the house towards the convenience store. They chatted idly on the way there. The store owner took a selfie with them.  
  


“I want Doritos.”  
  


“Well, you cant have any. They are unhealthy and filled with palm oil.”  
  


“Okay, how about you get your prissy bag of raisins, and I’ll get my bag of Doritos.”  
  


“Fine. As long as you pay.”  
  


“Why me? Your expensive healthy stuff costs almost double?!”  
  


“Hmm? What was that? Sorry, I don’t speak whiny bitch.”  
  


“Fuck off, you were the one whining about palm oil in the first place, cupcake.”  
  


“Don’t cupcake me unless you intend to pay.”  
  


“Fine then, sugar-tits. Be like that.”  
  


“What the FUCK did you just call me!?”  
  


In the end, they were given the snacks for free by the owner, who apparently had a daughter at their school who was being bullied. It was very sweet, and Karma definitely appreciated the thanks, but it was odd knowing that this middle aged woman had just watched him call Gakushuu sugartits.  
  


Just as they were leaving the store with a bag of snacks, they heard a cry.  
  


"Help!"  
  


Karma immediately turned to Gakushuu to see if they could go and help, but Gakushuu was already on his way around the corner. Karma cursed and chased after the boy.  
  


As he rounded the corner, he saw a woman struggling as a group of men ripped her possessions from her. One of them had a gun, and was keeping the small crowd that had   
gathered at bay. Everyone was nervously circling the men or filming.  
  


"Stay back! Or I'll shoot!"  
  


“Hey! Look! It’s that gay kid and his boyfriend!”  
  


“I suggest that you put the gun down.” Gakushuu said calmly, despite having a gun trained at him.  
  


“Yeah? Or what?”  
  


“Gakushuu, back down! Let me handle this!” Karma pulled at Gakushuu’s elbow, knowing that despite Gakushuu’s lighting reflexes he couldn’t escape a gun. For the first time in a long time fear clouded his mind. If it had been anyone from 3E he would’ve been okay, but Gakushuu-  
  


“And let this women get mugged?” Gakushuu said back. Karma sighed shakily and stepped away from Gakushuu towards the man with his arms up. The lady was struggling on the floor, trying to keep her phone in her hands. Another man was desperately slashing at the crowd with a knife.  
  


“Hey! I mean it! Stay back or I’ll shoot you and your bitch!” The man said, moving his gun from Gakushuu to Karma.  
  


“His WHAT!”  
  


Karma laughed out loud, the tension not quite leaving his body.  
  


“Oh, you are a dead man.”  
  


Karma planned his approach onto the men with Gakushuu’s. Gakushuu’s was more of a launch yourself fists flying at the man, which was surprising, considering that was normally Karma’s tactic. The man moved his gun too late, and the two of them went crashing down. The gun shot off, and the redhead’s heart raced. He heard a grunt of pain from Gakushuu (Karma saw red), and the gun came sliding towards him. Karma kicked the gun away, and joined his boyfriend in the fray.  
  
  
  
  


“Thank you! I don’t know how I can thank you two enough!” the lady sobbed into Gakushuu’s jacket as he held her in the middle of the street. Karma was doing crowd control, talking to the people present and reassuring them. Surprisingly no one was too scared to talk to him, despite the fact that they had watched two high schoolers go ape shit feral and taken down a lot of men. The police had been called and had just arrived. The men were being taken in, and all of the woman’s possessions had been returned.  
  


“You are like a real life superhero!”  
  


“You’re amazing!”  
  


“My little sister is being bullied, if I gave you her details would you be able to do anything-“  
  


Karma blushed at the praise. How he had gone from a delinquent known for causing trouble to a ‘superhero’ he didn’t know. But it was always nice to know that people appreciated you.  
  


“Karma? The police want to talk to us,” Gakushuu said. He had handed over the woman to the police, who would get her to a hospital to get checked up.  
  


The two of them sat there and answered as many questions as possible. Gakushuu’s voice was weak, and he looked tired. Eventually, they were allowed to leave after some questioning, and after the police had taken their statements. Karma kept a close eye on Gakushuu, who looked pale. He couldn’t stop that sound of pain from circling in his mind.  
  


He kept his arm under Gakushuu’s just in case, initially it had been for the crowds, but now Karma was legitimately concerned.  
  


“Hey, are you alright?” He asked Gakushuu after the police were out of earshot, having gone to get the statements from some of the crowd members.  
  


“Fine.” Was the curt, slightly pathetic reply from Shuu.  
  


“Do I need to get the police to take us to the hospital-“  
  


“No! I said I’m fine!” he snapped back.  
  


“Okay, okay. Lets just leave quickly.”  
  


Keeping one arm wrapped around Gakushuu’s waist, he told one of the officers that they were leaving. He left his phone number with the officers and the lady.  
  


As they left the scene he felt Gakushuu leaning against him heavily.  
  


“Are we going back to Ren’s? Or do you want me to take you back to my house?”  
  


Gakushuu was breathing heavily.  
  


“Your house.”  
  


Karma hailed the next taxi that passed, and told the driver the address.  
  


The journey wasn’t a long one, but it felt like ages.  
  


“Hey! I don’t want that one to get blood on my seats! Want me to take you to the hospital?” came the static voice of the taxi driver.  
  


Blood?!  
  


Karma looked over, and fuck, did confirm that Gakushuu was indeed bleeding from his side. It had soaked through his tshirt, and earlier when Karma had noticed Gakushuu take off his jacket to put pressure on his side, he hadn’t thought much of it.  
  


Gakushuu looked pained but shook his head.  
  


“Gakushuu, do I need to get you to a hospital?”  
  


Gakushuu shook his head furiously again.  
  


“No, please just continue to the original destination. I’ll keep the blood off your seats. If there is any, I’ll pay for it to be cleaned.” Karma said shakily. The driver tsked but continued.  
  


About 2 minutes later, they arrived outside Karma’s house. Karma quickly paid the driver, who drove off quickly, obviously not wanting to be apart of whatever was going on.  
  


He heaved Gakushuu down his driveway, who was sweating heavily.  
  


“Fuck, Gakushuu, either I’m going to need to carry you, or you’re going to have to pull a bit more of your weight.” He said, but as soon as the words had left his mouth, Gakushuu practically collapsed in his arms.  
  


“Right, okay, carrying it is,” Karma said, pulling Gakushuu against his front. He hooked one hand under each thigh and looped Gakushuu’s arms around his neck.  
  


“I’m going to need you to hold on, okay sweetheart?” Karma said.  
  


He got no response, but Gakushuu’s arms tightened around his neck.  
  


Hauling Gakushuu to his door was hard enough, opening it was torture (Gakushuu wasn’t exactly light, and trying to hold him up with one hand whilst he got out his key was very difficult. He had never ever been more thankful for his training before.)  
  


If he had thought all of that was hard, getting him up the stairs was painful. He kept slipping and Karma nearly sent the two of them flying. Thankfully, Gakushuu was too feverish to notice. When he finally got up to the bathroom, he carefully laid Gakushuu in the bathtub and began to strip his clothes off. He would’ve been embarrassed in any other situation, but he couldn’t think past the cloud of fear.  
  


Once Gakushuu’s shirt was off, Karma got a good look at the wound. It wasn’t as bad as the scenarios in his head had shown him, but it definitely wasn’t good. It looked like a knife wound, but a stab but an awful slash that went from below his rib-cage to upper thigh.  
  


Oh no, thought Karma. I’m going to have to take his jeans off. _Shame._  
  


It was bleeding a lot, and would need stitches from what he could see. Thankfully, from years of patching himself up (especially when he was a baby delinquent) he knew how to stitch someone up. He quickly cleaned the wound with some alcohol, trying hard to ignore the pained whimper Gakushuu gave out when the alcohol touched him.  
  


He knew the stitching was going to be painful, and he didn’t know if he could take listening to Gakushuu in pain for much longer.  
  


“Do I still have my chloroform around?” he thought desperately. After a few minutes of digging (in which Gakushuu was losing precious blood) he found it, and put it on a napkin.  
  


“Sorry Shuu, but I don’t want you in pain,” Karma said, pressing it to Gakushuu nose and mouth and the other boy passed out quickly.  
  


Once he’d peeled all of Gakushuu’s clothes off (sans boxers, he was a weak man but not that weak) He began to stitch him up. However he soon realised that he would need to take them off to stitch up the wound entirely.  
  


 _Oh no_ , thought Karma. This really is a _**horrible outcome**_.

Trying to the best of his ability not to look, he finished the stitching and cleaned Gakushuu and the bathtub off. The cut wasn’t infected, and hadn’t hit anything important, but Gakushuu had lost a lot of blood. He dried him off, bandaged him up and pulled some of his own clothes onto the other boy (OH NO, WHAT A SHAME). Once that hysterical adrenaline had died done, Karma realised just how exhausted he was.  
  


Only then did he realise the friends that were waiting for them.  
  


** _A bunch of losers (plus Gakushuu) – Asano  
  
_ **

[20.33] **Japanese** \- are you two okay? You’ve been gone a while  
  


[20.33] **Science** \- Oh, I’m sure they’re just fine ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
  


[20.34] **English** \- Shut up Koyama  
  


[20.35] **Japanese** \- no but, seriously, they’ve been gone over an hour to get snacks  
  
...

[20.40] **SocialStudies** \- Okay, now I’m concerned as well  
  


[20.41] **Japanese** \- SEE?  
  


[20.42] **Science** \- They haven’t read the messages either  
  


[20.45] **English** \- Me and Ren are coming to look for you. Koyama and Araki are home if you get back before we do  
  
...

[20.55] SocialStudies- Any updates??  
  
...

[21.01] **Japanese** \- we asked the store owner, they were here, but apparently there was a crime around the corner which they ran to? We are going to check that out.  
  


[21.03] **Science** \- Okay! Keep us updated. No sign of them here.  
  
...

[21.30] **English** \- Okay, so there was an a lady getting mugged, they helped of some shit, but they both ran off? The policeman said neither were hurt from what he could see, but he cant tell us where they went.  
  


[21.35] **Science** \- see? They’re fine. They’ve probably gone off together somewhere  
  


[21.35] **SocialStudies** \- ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
  


[21.36] **Japanese** \- It would help if they answered the phone tho! I’ve called them several times and they aren’t picking up!  
  


[21.37] **English** \- Don’t sweat it Ren, they’re probably fine  
  


[21.38] **SocialStudies** \- They’re probably just preoccupied  
  


[21.38] **Science** \- ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
  


[21.40] **English** \- okay, you two need to knock it off. Ren is stressing here  
  


[21.40] English- We are coming back now  
  
...

[22.05] **Japanese** \- Okay, still nothing, I am concerned.  
  


[22.08] **SocialStudies** \- Even if they were fucking I doubt Karma would last this long. I’m concerned now  
  


[22.08] **Science** \- ABJSIBS  
  


[22.10] **English** \- Please just message us okay?  
  
...

[22.30] **Japanese** \- Okay, this is fucking it. I’m calling Mr Asano  
  


[22.31] **Science** \- no need for drastic measures!  
  


[22.32] **English** \- Give them a few more minutes  
  
...

[22.45] **Japanese** \- OKAY IM FUCKING DOING IT  
  


[22.45] **Japanese** \- KARMA/GAKUSHUU YOU HAVE 30 SECONDS TO MESSAGE BACK  
  


“Shit!” Karma thought!  
  


[22.46] **BetterMaths** \- CHILL CHILL  
  


[22.46] **Science** \- YOURE ALIVE!!!!!  
  


[22.46] **BetterMaths** \- PLEASE DON’T CALL MR ASANO  
  


[22.46] **Japanese** \- IM CRYING IS GAKUSHUU OKAY???  
  


Karma selected Ren’s contact and called.  
  


“KARMA?? WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?” came the distraught voice of Ren.  
  


“Everything is okay! We got caught up in that crime scene, we fixed everything don’t worry, but Gakushuu got hurt so I took him back to my house to patch him up. He didn’t want to go to the hospital.” Karma clarified.  
  


A beat of silence.  
  


“WHAT THE FUCKKK???”  
  


“IS HE OKAY??”  
  


“WE ARE ON OUR WAY!”  
  


Karma cringed at the loud sounds coming from the rest of the group. Ren had obviously put them on speaker.  
  


“MY BABY! HE’S HURT!” Ren wailed.  
  


“I wouldn’t bother guys. He’s out at the moment. He’s perfectly fine, he just lost a bit of blood. I’ll keep you guys updated with his condition.”  
  


Loud sobbing sounds were heard behind the phone.  
  


“Karma? I took the phone from Ren. Are you sure he’s okay? You should take him to a hospital.” Seo’s voice came, surprisingly taking charge in Gakushuu’s absence and Ren’s state.  
  


“He adamantly refused to go to the hospital, and I’ve had a lot of experience patching people up, and the wound itself isn’t serious, he’s just out of it due to the blood loss. He’ll be fine though.”  
  


Seo hummed over the line.  
  


“Okay, I trust you. Take care of him.”  
  


“If he can travel tomorrow I’ll bring him back over to Ren’s. Also I doubt telling Mr Asano will help. We can let Gakushuu handle that.”  
  


“Okay. Keep us updated. If he wakes up, tell him to call us.”  
  


“Will do. Don’t stress about him, I promise I’ll take care of him.”  
  


He could almost hear the resignation in Seo’s voice, and he pretended the two gasps over the line were his imagination.  
  


“Stop with the sappy shit. It was easier to hate you when you were a bitch.”  
  


Karma laughed.  
  


“Whatever. See ya, idiots.”  
  


He hung up on the call.  
  


He sat down on his bed, where Gakushuu was unconscious.  
  


  
**_A bunch of losers (plus Gakushuu) – Asano  
  
_ **

[22.50] **BetterMaths** \- [1 photo attachment]  
  


[22.51] **Japanese** \- :,)

  
[22.51] **Science** \- Is he wearing your clothes???

  
[22.52] **SocialStudies** \- HE’S SO CUTE

  
[22.52] **English** \- This is my new lockscreen.

  
[22.53] **BetterMaths** \- I’m gonna go to bed now. Been a long day. If anything happens I’ll tell you guys. Try not to stress tho.

  
[22.54] **Science** \- Goodnight!

  
[22.55] **Japanese** \- If anything happens I will break your face

  
[22.56] **SocialStudies** \- What Ren means is ‘thank you Karma for taking care of Gakushuu’  
  


[22.56] **Japanese** \- :/

  
[22.57] **English** \- Talk to us in the morning please.  
  


[22.58] **BetterMaths** \- will do (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*

  
[22.59] **Japanese** \- Disgusting

  
[23.00] **BetterMaths** \- night!

  
With that Karma switched off his phone and went to check on Gakushuu, and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw that the boy was awake.

  
“Hey,” Gakushuu said weakly.

  
“You feeling okay?” Karma asked, feeling Gakushuu’s forehead for a fever. He was a little hot, but nothing some rest wouldn’t help.

  
“Mhm, kinda feel like I got slashed by a knife honestly.” Gakushuu said.

  
Karma grabbed him some painkillers and a bottle of water. He made sure Gakushuu had downed it all before they lapsed into silence.

  
“Hey Karma?”

  
Karma turned to see Gakushuu looking at him again. He made such a comfortable picture, one of Karma’s sweaters on, bundled in blankets. If he hadn’t known about the bandages or seen the pale skin, he would’ve been endeared.

  
“Mh?”

  
“Thank you. Honestly.”

  
Karma flushed a bit.

  
“It’s no problem. You would have done the same for me,”

They lapsed into silence once more. Just as he saw Gakushuu’s eyes drooping, he quickly asked something else.

  
“Gakushuu, before you go to sleep, can I ask you something?”

  
Gakushuu cracked an eye open.

  
“Sure. Anything.”

  
“Why didn’t you want to go to the hospital?”

  
Surprisingly, Gakushuu didn’t flinch. He just smiled openly and Karma’s heart fluttered a bit.

  
“I was scared that if one of us got publically hurt that we wouldn’t be able to help people any more. You know my dad and the principal. I really like what we are doing, it makes me feel like I’m doing something good with my life,” Gakushuu said. It made sense to Karma. If one of them got hurt, especially on film, it would change a lot.

  
“I know this fake dating thing is a pain, and I hate putting myself through it as much as you must, but all the good we are doing?” Gakushuu yawned, and burrowed down into the covers.

  
“I think that it makes it worth it. Plus, we make a good team, even if we don’t make a good couple,” Gakushuu said with a smile, his eyes closed so he couldn’t see the wide-eyed look Karma was giving him.

  
“In the morning, I’ll probably get all embarrassed that you had to look after me. Please try to not make me move, I’d actually like to go to school on Monday.” Gakushuu said, words slurring a bit.

  
“Okay,” Karma said, chest feeling tight, and head swimming.

  
“Karma?”

  
“Yeah?”

  
  
“Pet my hair?”  
  


Karma nearly choked on his own spit. Eventually, he did bring his hand to Gakushuu’s hair, and played with the slightly damp strands. Gakushuu sighed and leaned into the   
touch.  
  


“My Father used to do this all the time with me, before he changed.” Gakushuu mumbled, half asleep.  
  


“The pain meds are making you weird,” Karma said with a tight smile, his hands shaking in Gakushuu’s hair. Gakushuu smiled.  
  


“Naturally,” he said.  
  


“Goodnight Shuu,” Karma said.  
  


“Night Karma,” Gakushuu said, leaning into Kamra’s touch and his body. Karma played with his hair until he knew that Gakushuu was asleep.  
  


With a shaking breath he removed his hand and stared at the boy.  
  
  


Holy fuck.  
  
  
  


Did he have a crush on Gakushuu Asano?  
  
  


The boy he was fake-dating, who thought they made a bad couple but a good team, his hated rival.  
  
  
  


Shit shit shit.  
  
  


This was never going to work.  
  
  


Karma had to get over it asap, or he was in for a world of hurt.  
  
  


But, as he stared at the boy sleeping in his bed, in his clothes, he couldn’t help but smile.

I’m allowed to be selfish sometimes, Karma thought, and joined Gakushuu under the covers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soft delinquent karma soft delinquent karma soft delinquent karma soft delinquent karma-
> 
> BUT DEVELOPMENTS! This will ultimately be a cute story, with not so much pining and angst as my other fic, so sorry if this went really fast. I just wanted to write Karma crushing on Gakushuu, sue me.
> 
> I love the idea of Gakuhou and the principal getting drunk and bitching together lmao, and Ren going feral when Gakushuu is in trouble is pretty canon.
> 
> Please comment your thoughts! Sorry again that it took so long.
> 
> Stay healthy!


End file.
